\'L.  ao.\'i. 


^X  iU  ^btaUgicni  ^ 


^ 


■^^ "  ^^fttii 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


% 


S 


Presented   by    Pres'icie-n-k   pQ^^o-n, 


Division '. 


Section 


OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE  I ''" 


OB, 


THE  METHODS  AND  WOEK 


OP  THK 


UNIVEESALIST  CHUECH  OF  AMEEICA, 


AS   IT   ENTERS    ON 


ITS   SECOND   CENTURY. 


BY 

/ 

ELBRIDGE   GERRY   BROOKS,  D.D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  MESSIAH, 
PHILADELPHIA. 


"  Whereto  we  have  already  attained,  let  us  walk  by  the 
same  rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing." 


BOSTON: 
UNIVERSALIST    PUBLISHING    HOUSE, 

No.  37   COKNHILL. 

1874. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873, 

By  ELBRIDGE  GERRY  BROOKS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
19  Spring  Lane. 


TO 


Carrie : 


OUR  BEAUTIFUL  MEMORY 
ON    EARTH; 

OUR  FLOWN  'DOVE'   AWAITING  US 
IN  HE  A  VEN. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcinive 

in  2009  witii  funding  from 

Princeton  Tiieological  Seminary  Library 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/ournewdepartureoOObroo 


PREFACE. 


This  book  was  planned  early  in  1871,  and  was  to  have  been  published  a  few 
months  after.  I  regret  that  it  could  not  have  been  so  published.  But  under 
the  peremptory  order  of  my  physician,  I  was  compelled  as  neai-ly  as  possible 
to  suspend  all  mental  labor  during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1871-72,  and  much 
of  the  ensuing  spring.  In  August  following,  my  eyes  failed,  and  during  the 
autumn  and  eai-ly  winter,  when  I  had  hoped  to  finish  the  work,  no  reading  or 
writing  was  permitted  me.  Except  for  these  causes,  the  book  would  have 
appeared  much  closer  upon  our  Centenary  Year,  and  ere  the  leading  title  had 
become  so  nearly  hackneyed.  But  though  the  title  —  selected,  I  may  be  ex- 
cused for  saying,  a  considerable  time  before  I  had  ever  seen  it  used  in  such  an 
application  —  has  lost  in  freshness,  it  has  lost  nothing  in  significance ;  and 
though  our  Centenary  is  three  years  behind  us,  we  are  still  so  on  the  thresh- 
old of  our  Second  Century,  that  the  book  is  no  less  appropriate  as  an  at- 
tempt to  indicate  something  of  what  our  methods  and  work  should  be  as  we 
enter  upon  it. 

I  make  no  apology  for  these  pages.  For  nearly  forty  years,  a  humble  par- 
ticipant in  our  church- work,  I  have  been  not  only  an  observer,  but  a  student 
of  our  denominational  life  —  our  condition,  hinderances,  needs,  prospects. 
I  have  watched  events,  and  tried  to  trace  effects  to  causes.  These  pages  re- 
cord my  conclusions  —  conclusions  carefullj^  some  of  them,  unwillingly, 
reached.  I  wish  the  presentation  had  been  better  done.  But  for  the  conclu- 
sions themselves,  I  plead  neither  explanation,  nor  excuse.  They  are,  I  be- 
lieve, in  the  main,  impregnable.  As  such,  it  is  my  profound  conviction,  they 
are  what  Universalists  need,  beyond  everything  else,  solemnly  to  ponder. 
They  indicate,  I  am  satisfied,  alike  the  explanations  to  be  considered  so  far  as 
we  have  failed  to  witness  the  practical  religious  results  we  had  a  right  to  ex- 
pect, and  the  conditions  upon  which  alone  any  vitalizing  and  saving  influence 
is  possible  to  us.  These  being  my  convictions,  I  have  uttered  them  as  I  have ; 
"  according  as  it  is  written,  I  believed,  and  therefore  have  I  spoken." 

And  having  so  written,  I  lay  this  book  as  an  unpretending  offering  on  the 
altar  of  our  Faith,  to  suggest  what,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the  further  growth  and 
power  of  our  Church  demand.  I  solicit  for  it  the  consideration  to  which  it  is 
entitled  by  vhtue  of  the  importance  of  the  interests  it  concerns.  The  oflT- 
spring  of  no  hasty  impulse,  or  immature  thinking,  I  ask  that  it  be  dealt  with 
in  no  hasty  or  superficial  way.    It  does  but  give  voice,  in  such  fashion  as  I 

5 


6  PEErACE. 

could,  to  what  is  deepest  — and  long  has  been  deepest  —  In  many  minds  and 
hearts  among  us.  Not  for  the  sake  of  speaking,  but  under  an  imperative 
sense  of  duty,  I  have  spoken  frankly,  sometimes  using  "  great  plainness  of 
speech,"  though  in  no  instance,  I  trust,  speaking  otherwise  than  courteously 
and  kindly.  If  any  occasion  is  seen  to  criticise  or  disapprove  tlic  book,  let  it 
be  criticised  or  disapproved  in  the  same  spirit.  My  appeal  is  to  the  Bible,  and 
reason,  and  spiritual  law  —  often  to  simple  common  sense.  In  this  court,  let 
whatever  issue  is  raised  be  fairly  tried.    I  am  content  to  abide  the  verdict. 

Whatever  criticism  the  book  may  receive,  I  shall  enter  into  no  controversy  to 
defend  it.  For  the  reasons  already  mentioned,  growing  out  of  the  state  of  my 
health  and  my  impaired  eyesight,  the  work  has  been  done,  amidst  my  par- 
ish cares,  at  long  intervals  of  time,  and  in  a  broken  and  desultory  manner. 
These  circumstances  have  not  been  favorable  to  connected  writing  —  on  which 
account,  any  repetitions  that  may  possibly  be  observed  must  be  pardoned. 
But  as  to  substance,  every  sentence  has  been  weighed,  and  what  I  have  writ- 
ten, is  written.  I  think  it  sufficiently  explains  and  vindicates  itself.  Let  its 
mistakes  and  errors  be  exposed— and  forgotten.  Its  truth  will  take  care  of 
itself. 

With  these  introductory  words,  I  commend  the  book  to  the  blessing  of  God, 
and  to  the  welcoming  sympathy  of  all  who  love  our  Church.  May  I  com- 
mend it,  also,  to  the  candor  and  reflection  of  those  who,  not  Universahsts, 
would  know  something  of  Universalism  in  its  present  form  and  tendencies, 
or  who,  however  they  may  reject  some  of  our  conclusions,  would  find  ground 
for  giving  us  recognition  and  fellowship  as  one  of  the  divisions  of  Christ's 
army  of  redemption  ?  The  time,  probably,  is  not  far  distant  when  I  shall  no 
longer  personally  labor  for  our  Church  on  earth.  Many  years  of  work  for  it 
may  be  —  and  if  such  is  God's  will,  I  hope  are  —  before  me.  I  have  plans  for 
ot]}er  pages,  which  I  would  gladly  be  spared  to  accomplish.  But  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  hill,  I  am  not  without  serious  admonitions  that  my  ministry, 
if  not  my  life,  may  at  any  moment  be  ended.  And  should  either  event  occur 
before  I  can  send  forth  other  pages,  I  know  of  no  form  in  which  I  would  rather 
speak  my  last  word  than  in  what  is  herein  said.  It  is  at  the  same  time  the 
utterance  of  my  deepest  faith,  and  a  testimony  of  my  love  for  the  Church 
into  which  I  was  born  aad  to  which  my  whole  life  has  been  given.  Nor,  con- 
sidering what  may  possible/  be  said  by  way  of  objection  to  this  book,  can  I 
better  close  this  prefiice  than  in  words  I  wrote,  in  effect,  many  years  ago :  — 
Universalism  is  the  highest  concern  of  the  world  to  me.  I  know,  or  wish, 
no  better  work  than  to  labor  for  it  while  I  live ;  and  when  I  am  dead,  I  desire 
no  higher  praise  than  to  have  it  said  of  me,  Holding  it  as  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
he  loved  and  was  always  faithful  to  it. 

Philadelphia, 

November  26,  1873. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    The  New  Depaktukb 9 

II.     A  Survey  of  the  Field 41 

III.  The  Goodness  of  God 59 

IV.  Bought  with  a  Price C8 

V.     Christ  Essential 76 

VI.     Sin 85 

VII.     Salvation 99 

VIII.     Conversion 112 

IX.     Experimental  Keligion 130 

X.     Consecration 147 

XI.     The  Bible 156 

XII.     Prater 175 

XIII.  Our  Ministry 194 

XIV.  The   Church 228 

XV.     The    Sunday    School 251 

XVI.     Man  and  Woman 2G8 

XVII.     Unity 285 

XVIII.     Giving 293 

XIX.     Doing 306 

XX.     Three  Words 315 

7 


"  Come,  Holy  Spirit,  from  above, 
And  from  the  realms  of  light  and  love 

Thine  own  bright  rays  impart. 
Come,  Father  of  the  fatherless. 
Come,  Giver  of  all  happiness, 

Come,  Lamp  of  every  heart. 

"  0  Thou,  of  comforters  the  best, 
O  Thou,  the  soul's  most  welcome  guest, 

O  Thou,  our  sweet  repose. 
Our  resting-place  from  life's  long  care. 
Our  shadow  from  the  world's  fierce  glare, 

Our  solace  in  all  woes. 

"  0  Light  divine,  all  light  excelling. 
Fill  with  Thyself  the  inmost  dwelling 

Of  souls  sincere  and  lowly : 
Without  thy  pure  divinity. 
Nothing  in  all  humanity,  ' 

Nothing  is  strong  or  holy. 

"  Wash  out  each  dark  and  sordid  stain, 
Water  each  dry  and  arid  plain, 

Raise  up  the  bruised  reed. 
Enkindle  what  is  cold  and  chill, 
Kelax  the  stiff  and  stubborn  will, 

Guide  those  that  goodness  need. 

"  Give  to  the  good,  who  find  in  Thee 
The  Spirit's  perfect  liberty. 

Thy  seven-fold  power  and  love. 
Give  virtue  strength  its  crown  to  win, 
Give  struggling  souls  their  rest  from  sin. 
Give  endless  peace  above." 

Veni,  Sancte  Spieitus, 

Dean  Stanky's  Translation. 

8 


OUR   NEW  DEPAETUEE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  NEW  DEPAETUEE. 


Every  live  movement,  in  proportion  as  it  is  alive,  en- 
larges as  it  proceeds.  And  so  enlarging,  it  necessarily 
creates  constantly  new  circumstances,  out  of  which  grow 
fresh   demands. 

The  important  question  concerning  every  such  movemeut, 
therefore,  is,  How  far  will  it  successively  adjust  itself  to 
these  new  circumstances,  and  meet  these  fresh  demands  ? 
On  the  answer  to  this  question,  under  God,  the  final 
breadth  and  power  of  the  movement  wholly  depend. 

Principles  never  change.  Neither  do  the  ultimate  pur- 
poses of  any  enterprise  whose  relations  and  issues  have, 
at  the  outset,  been  fully  perceived.  But  methods,  instru- 
ments, directions  of  labor,  bases  of  operation  must  perpet- 
ually change,  or  weakness  and  failure  ensue.  No  wise 
commander  adheres  to  any  line  of  march  save  only  with 
reference  to  his  objective  point.  His  tactics  vary  with  the 
progress  and  varying  exigencies  of  the  campaign.  Every 
day  he  studies  the  situation,  to  determine  his  strategy 
accordingly.  New  departures,  by  flank,  detour,  or  ad- 
vance, are  made  after  every  fight.  How  else  do  campaigns 
end  in  victory  ?  Or,  who  doubts  the  consequence  should 
any  commander  obstinately  persist  that,  as  he  began,  so, 
in  every  particular,  he  must  push  on  ?  As  little  is  victory 
possible  for  any  movement  that  aims  at  growth  or  conquest, 
except  on  similar  terms. 

9 


10  OUR  NEW  DEPAETURE. 

The  Universalist  movement  is  no  exception  to  these 
necessities.  Of  the  nature  or  importance  of  this  move- 
ment it  is  not  requisite  here  to  speak  at  length.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  no  reasonable  words  can  exaggerate 
what  it  is,  what  it  has  done,  or  what  it  may  do.  Broadly 
viewed,  it  is,  intellectually  and  morally,  the  grandest  move- 
ment of  these  last  centuries.  Since  Luther,  there  is  noth- 
ing comparable  to  it.  It  was  the  resurrection  of  the  long- 
slumbering  moral  consciousness  of  the  Church.  It  was 
reason  and  common  sense  once  more  re-asserting  them- 
selves amidst  the  contradictions  and  absurdities  of  the 
creeds.  Beginning  as  a  protest  of  the  uneducated  popular 
heart  against  the  cold  and  cruel  scholasticism  of  the  tradi- 
tional theology,  and  providentially  desig-ned  to  give  the 
world  a  more  humane  and  harmonious  interpretation  of  the 
Gospel,  it  has  swept,  a  modifying  and  reconstructive  power, 
through  the  realm  of  opinion,  and  spread  as  a  subtile  influ- 
ence, for  the  most  part  unrecognized,  but  none  the  less 
actual,  pei'meating  society  with  broader  principles,  and  a 
tenderer  and  more  sympathetic  spirit,  to  an  extent  that  no 
human  foresight  could  have  dared  anticipate.  When  John 
Murray  was  being  stoned  in  Boston,  or  when  his  friends  in 
Gloucester,  or,  later  still,  the  handful  of  Universalists  in 
New  Hampshire,  were  battling  before  the  courts  for  their 
rights  as  a  distinct  denomination,  had  some  one  ventured  to 
predict  that  in  the  year  1870  Uuiversalism  would  have  so 
leavened  the  country,  including  even  the  churches,  or  that 
THE  Universalist  Church  of  America  would  to-day  be  what 
it  is  in  all  the  elements  of  Christian  power,  none  would  have 
been  more  ready  than  the  Universalists  themselves  to  pro- 
nounce him  wildly  visionary.  What  has  thus  been  realized, 
seen  and  unseen,  considering  the  circumstances,  is  almost 
without  parallel.  All  honor  to  those  who,  in  any  way,  have 
helped  to  make  the  movement  thus  potent.  A  brave  and 
sturdy  company,  for  the  most  part,  they  have  been.  Seldom 
has  any  work  had  workmen  braver,  or  more  deserving  the 
world's  remembrance. 

But,  exalted  as  are  the  terms  in  which  this  movement  is 
to  be  spoken  of,  and  much  as  all  interested  in  it  have  occa- 
sion to  be  proud  of  the  record  which,  in  most  respects,  it 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  11 

has  made  for  itself,  it  is  obvious,  in  the  nature  of  tlie  case, 
that,  if  it  is  to  continue  effective,  its  methods  must  change 
with  the  changed  circumstances  it  has  helped  to  create. 
What  has  been  cannot  suffice  for  what  is,  or  is  to  be ;  nor 
can  the  experiment  of  making  it  suffice  be  insisted  on, 
except  at  the  peril  of  the  whole  movement  as  thus  far  organ- 
ized. 

At  first,  our  work  was  of  necessity  controversial.  Occu- 
pied as  the  religious  field  was,  our  call  was  to  assail  and 
denounce  —  to  oppose,  dispute,  pull  down.  We  were  noth- 
ing if  not  aggressive.  As  the  consequence,  we  have  ar- 
raigned, discussed  and  controverted  the  old  theology  as 
none  others  have  been  willing  to  do.  We  have  exposed  its 
sophisms  ;  have  made  manifest  its  inconsistencies  and  con- 
tradictions ;  have  denounced  the  grossness  of  its  barbarous 
principles,  and  the  fallacy  of  its  narrow  assumptions.  We 
have  wrested  from  it  the  Scriptures  it  has  misapplied,  and 
have  demonstrated  by  our  reiterated  expositions  —  reiter- 
ated, as  some  have  thought,  to  very  weariness  —  how  posi- 
tively the  Bible  announces  quite  other  conclusions.  We 
have  shown  how  reason  and  conscience,  and  nature  and 
Providence,  and  every  humane  instinct,  array  themselves 
against  it.  In  few  words,  we  have  so  kept  in  agitation  this 
entire  question  of  God,  and  man,  and  destiny,  in  all  its  in- 
tellectual, moral,  and  scriptural  aspects  and  relations,  as  to 
compel  the  public  attention  to  it.  We  have  had  allies,  it  is 
true.  We  readily  concede  all  that  can  be  justly  claimed  for 
them.  But,  without  stopping  now  to  enumerate  them,  or  to 
analyze  the  precise  ratio  of  their  and  our  comparative  influ- 
ence, it  is  not  too  much  to  allege  that  we  have  accomplished 
more  than  any  other  one  agency  —  probably  more  than  all 
other  agencies  combined.  There  could  have  been  no  Ward 
Beecher  without  Hosea  Ballou.  The  result  is  obvious. 
That  single  name  —  Ward  Beecher  —  better  symbolizes  it 
than  whole  volumes  could  describe  it.  '  Orthodoxy '  still 
has  its  nominal  believers  —  many  of  them  ;  and  considerable 
numbers,  despite  the  growing  breadth  and  liberality,  adhere 
immovably  to  the  ancient  standards.  Dr.  Hodge's  "  Sys- 
tematic Theology,"  and  the  recent  action  of  little  knots  of 
ministers  in  various  localities,  are  among  the  latest,  as  they 


12-  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

are  sufiScient,  witnesses  of  this  ;  and,  looking  at  catechisms 
and  text-books,  we  may  still  find  many  of  them  as  harsh  as 
ever.  But  the  sway  of  the  sacrificial  system  is  none  the 
'c^ess  broken.  Dr.  Hodge's  book  and  the  ministerial  demon- 
strations no  doubt  have  sympathizers  ;  and  there  are  those 
who  are  satisfied  with  the  catechisms  and  the  test-books,  or 
they  could  not  hold  their  place  ;  but  they  are  anachronisms, 
nevertheless  —  as  little  in  keeping  with  the  existing  drift  of 
popular  and  church  thought  as  Dr.  Emmons's  cocked  hat 
and  knee-breeches,  if  to-day  reproduced,  would  be  with  the 
present  style  of  dress,  or  as  some  extinct  monster  of  the 
Silurian  epoch,  should  it  return  to  perambulate  our  city 
streets,  would  be  with  the  life  amidst  which  it  would  walk. 
Speaking  of  those  portions  of  the  country  where  our  —  and 
other — modifying  influences  have  really  asserted  themselves, 
how  many  minds,  at  all  considerate,  do  not  now  revolt  from 
the  doctrines  which  Dr.  Hodge  is  so  grimly  re-affirming  ? 
How  many  are  now  affrighted  with  visions  of  God's  impla- 
cable wrath,  or  with  the  smoke  and  flames  of  an  endless  hell  ? 
How  many,  who  actually  think  of  God  at  all,  now  ever 
think  of  Him  as  an  arbitrary  Sovereign,  creating  souls  ou 
purpose  to  damn  them  forever,  or  as  a  Being  who  is  weakly 
permitting  the  larger  portion  of  His  creation  to  drift  to  help- 
less ruin  ?  Notwithstanding  the  creeds  and  catechisms.  He 
is  now  practically  thought  of  as  the  merciful  Friend  and 
Father  of  all ;  and  the  number  of  intelligent  people — in  the 
fields  referred  to  —  who,  without  question  or  reservation, 
believe  in  the  absolute  endlessness  of  sin  and  suffering,  is 
comparatively  very  small.  What  is  the  significance  of  the 
ministerial  demonstrations,  —  so  far  as  they  have  any  signifi- 
cance, —  except  that  they  point  to  these  facts  ?  Perhaps 
the  state  of  the  public  mind,  in  the  churches  and  out,  in 
these  respects,  has  never  before  been  put  to  so  significant  a 
test  as  by  the  recent  books  of  George  Macdonald,  especially 
his  "  Robert  Falconer."  This  book  is  an  express  onslaught 
against  all  that  is  characteristic  in  'orthodoxy'  and  is  not 
only  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  Universalism,  but  is  full  of 
vigorous  and  unanswerable  arguments  for  it.  But  who,  or 
how  many,  have  objected  to  it  on  these  accounts  'r*  News- 
papers and  reviews  of  all  shades  of  opinion  have  praised  it. 


THE  NEW  DEPARTUEE.  13 

The  most  strenuously  'evangelical '  pastors  have  advised  their 
people  to  read  it ;  and  thousands,  of  all  names  and  sects, 
.  have  taken  it  to  their  hearts  as  an  exceeding  refreshment 
and  joy.  Could  this  have  been  forty,  or  even  twenty,  years 
ago  ?  Look,  too,  at  the  new  departure  which  '  orthodoxy ' 
has  made  in  the  welcome  which  all  the  churches  are  willing 
to  give  to  Universalists,  notwithstanding  their  Universalism ; 
in  the  readiness  of  some  of  them  to  tolerate  it  even  in  their 
ministers  ;  and  in  the  larger  and  kindlier  fellowship  for  Uni- 
versalists which  is  finding  so  many  advocates.  I  know  a 
prominent  Methodist  church  in  whose  Sabbath-school  an 
avowed  Universalist  is  the  teacher  of  one  of  the  Bible- 
classes  ;  and  the  significance  of  the  ordination  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Jackson  among  the  Congregationalists,  and  of  the 
debate  among  them  and  others  whether  the  doctrine  of  end- 
less woe  is,  in  any  real  sense,  essential,  is  too  clear  to  be 
mistaken.  The  old  rigors,  to  a  wide  extent,  have  undeni- 
ably softened. 

The  circumstances  amidst  which  we  have  to  work,  then, 
being  so  changed,  the  direction  and  methods  of  our  work, 
manifestly,  if  we  are  to  work  to  best  effect,  must  be  modi- 
fied accordingly.  Argument  and  exposition,  attack  and 
defence,  are  unquestionably  still  required  as  much  as  ever 
in  some  localities — in  all  localities  on  some  occasions.  But 
these  are  no  longer  our  chief  business.  As  well  might  one 
persist  in  swinging  his  axe  when  only  an  occasional  tree  is 
to  be  felled,  and  when  his  pressing  need  is  to  till  his  ground 
for  harvests.  Not  that  we  have  been  altogether  negligent 
of  harvests.  It  is  sometimes  charged  that  we  have  been ; 
and  writers  and  speakers  of  our  own  have  not  been  lacking, 
who,  in  a  culpable  neglect  to  qualify  and  discriminate,  have 
joined  in  the  charge.  But  any  such  representation,  come  it 
whence  it  may,  is  false,  and  does  us  great  injustice.  We 
have  had  earnest  aflSrmative  aims  ;  and  our  organization, 
now  so  complete,  but  attained  only  after  so  many  years  of 
struggle  and  experiment,  is  demonstrative  proof  that  we 
have  sought  to  build  as  well  as  to  tear  down.  But  what 
harvests  have  we  chiefly  cultivated  ?  To  what  ends  have 
we  mainly  built  ?  For  the  awakening  of  the  thoughtless  ? 
For  the  conversion  of  sinners  ?     For  the  salvation  of  souls  ? 


14  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

For  these  ends  to  some  extent,  certainly ;  and  those  there 
have  been  among  us  —  in  number  not  a  few  —  second  to 
none  in  the  devotion  and  energy  with  which  they  have 
given  themselves  to  such  work.  But  can  it  be  said  that 
this  has  been  the  general  animus,  the  characteristic  spirit  of 
our  Universalist  effort  ?  On  the  contrary,  while  it  would  be 
slanderous  to  say  that  there  has  been  no  tliought  —  or  even 
to  say  that  there  has  not  been  a  good  deal  of  thought  — 
among  us  with  reference  to  these  ends,  has  not  our  labor,  as 
the  rule,  concerned  doctrines  more  than  souls,  except,  of 
course,  as  it  has  always  been  understood  that  it  is  for  the 
interest  of  souls  to  know  the  truth  ?  Has  not  our  effort 
been  to  convince  the  head  that  '  orthodoxy  '  is  not  true, 
and  that  God  is  good,  and  that  all  men  are  to  be  saved, 
rather  than  so  to  present  the  fact  of  God's  persistent  and 
pleading  love,  and  of  the  ultimate  repentance  and  obedience 
of  all,  as  to  convict  the  heart  of  sin,  to  quicken  the  con- 
science to  a  sense  of  guilt,  and  to  bring  the  people,  in  peni- 
tence and  a  confession  of  personal  need  and  obligation,  to 
their  knees  ?  In  a  word,  has  not  our  labor  been  theological 
more  than  experimental,  aiming  to  make  Christian  Univer- 
salists,  and  to  build  and  consolidate  a  Universalist  denomi- 
nation, rather  than  to  make  Universalist  Christians,  com- 
pacted and  consecrated  in  the  Universalist  Church  ?  It  is 
believed  that  no  contradiction  is  hazarded  in  saying  that 
these  last  questions  can  be  truthfully  answered  only  in  the 
aflBrmative.  The  deepest  and  most  interior  meanings  of 
Christ's  work  have  never  been  wholly  overlooked  among 
us  ;  but,  as  the  rule,  we  have  given  more  attention  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  to  save,  than  to  the  question.  How  ? 

When  I  entered  the  ministry  (1836),  and  for  several  years 
after,  I  found  few  with  any  clear  and  settled  answer  for  this 
question,  Hoiv  ?  —  for  the  reason  that  it  was  generally  held 
to  be  of  only  incidental  importance  ;  and  I  well  remember 
with  what  a  trembling  sense  of  treading  on  very  uncertain 
—  and  almost  forbidden  —  ground,  I  ventured  once  to  read 
an  essay  in  which  —  in  a  very  crude  way,  as  I  now  see  —  I 
had  tried  to  work  out  some  answer  to  this  question  for  my 
own  satisfaction.  It  was  not  until  some  time  after  the  pub- 
lication of  Dr.   Ballou's  weighty  and  every  way  admirable 


THE   NEW   DEPARTURE.  15 

paper  on  "The  New  Testament  Doctrine  of  Salvation,"  in 
the  "  Expositor  "  of  January,  1840,  that  the  misty  and  inco- 
herent state  of  thought  on  this  subject  began  to  give  place 
to  a  more  distinct  and  intelligent  view.  And  even  since,  as 
before,  that  paper  —  which  did  more  than  any  other  one 
thing  to  clarify  and  systematize  our  denominational  thinking 
on  this  point  —  the  very  large  proportion  of  our  ministers 
and  people  have  been  much  more  occupied  with  the  cei-tainty 
than  with  the  method  of  salvation.  God  and  what  He  has 
purposed,  rather  than  man  and  the  conditions  which  he  must 
fulfil,  have  constituted  the  burden  of  our  thought ;  and 
while  our  pulpit  —  from  which  have  spoken  a  succession  of 
men,  as  a  whole,  second  to  no  others  in  pui'ity  and  unselfish 
zeal  —  has  been  filled  with  argument  in  the  direction  of 
faith,  more  than  with  unction  in  the  direction  of  conversion 
and  work,  our  people  have  been  intelligent,  conscientious, 
benevolent,  morally  reputable,  comfortably  confident  that 
everything  is  to  come  out  rightly  at  last,  rather  than  pious, 
prayerful,  spiritually  vital,  eagerly  asking,  "  Men  and  breth- 
ren, what  shall  we  do  ?  " 

Nor,  however  much  there  may  be  in  all  this  to  regret, 
could  it,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  have  been  otherwise. 
Consider  the  facts.  The  entire  theory  of  God  and  the  uni- 
verse, when  our  movement  began,  and  for  many  subsequent 
years,  was  such  as  to  insult  every  rational  and  moral  in- 
stinct, and  to  render  all  that  bore  the  name  of  religion 
unattractive,  if  not  a  disgust.  Chiefest  of  all,  perhaps,  an 
appalling  uncertainty  hung  over  the  future.  Nothing  was 
definite.  Above  no  grave  could  a  sure  word  of  prophecy 
be  uttered.  Not  even  to  the  saintlicst  soul,  it  was  thought, 
was  there  authority  to  say,  "  Fear  not :  "  for  time  and  eter- 
nity, God  is  your  Friend.  Ours  it  was  to  pour  light  into 
this  darkness.  The  word  providentially  put  upon  our  lips 
was.  Look  up  :  God  rules  in  infinite  love,  and  Christ,  as  his 
messenger,  will  certainly  triumph.  Was  it  strange  that,  at 
first,  we  were  mainly  engrossed  with  the  errors  we  opposed, 
and  the  glad  tidings  we  pi'oclaimed  ?  Recalling  how  we 
were  not  only  doctrinally  assailed,  but  personally  maligned, 
misrepresented,  denounced  as  the  religious  pariahs  of  the 
country,  the  enemies  of  God  and   all  good,  would  it  not 


16  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

have  been  remarkable  if  we  had  had  much  thought  for  any- 
thing save  the  assertion  and  justification  of  our  truth  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  arraignment  of  '  orthodoxy '  and  its 
mischievous  power  on  the  other  ?  And,  full  of  our  message 
of  certainty,  as  we  had  occasion  to  be  amidst  the  prevailing 
suspense  and  gloom,  is  it  surprising  that  we  did  not  always 
stop  carefully  to.  weigh  in  detail  all  the  conditions  involved 
in  the  result  we  heralded,  or  to  emphasize  the  personal 
spiritual  necessities  it  imposed  ? 

But  it  is  one  of  God's  methods  that  every  work  educates 
its  workers.  So  our  work  has  been  educating  us.  More 
and  more,  as  the  years  have  passed,  the  conditions  upon 
which  all  moral  results  depend  have  been  asserting  them- 
selves in  our  thought.  The  question,  How  ?  or,  What  have 
we  to  do  ?  has  commanded  continually  increasing  attention. 
And  now,  entering  upon  the  second  century  of  our  history, 
we  have,  as  a  body,  very  generally  reached  conclusions  in 
the  light  of  which  the  answer  to  this  question  assumes 
momentous  importance.  What  we  are  at  this  point  to 
determine  is,  whether  or  not  this  answer  shall  have  the 
enforcement  its  importance  calls  for.  Not  that  we  are  to 
loee  any  interest  in  the  grand  fact  in  which  Universalism 
culminates.  We  are  to  abate  nothing  from  the  emphasis  or 
the  constancy  with  which  we  proclaim  it.  To  do  so  would 
be  to  abandon  the  position  we  have  conquered,  and  to  re- 
linquish the  chief  element  of  our  power.  The  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  without  the  doctrine  of  his  certain  ultimate 
triumph  in  the  conquest  of  sin  and  the  reconciliation  of  all 
souls  to  God,  is  the  arch  without  the  keystone,  is  the  lever 
without  the  fulcrum,  is  the  sky  without  the  sun,  is  the  body 
without  the  soul.  But,  while  this  result  must  still  have  its 
due  place,  its  cognate  —  and,  in  their  place,  no  less  impor- 
tant—  facts  must  have  greater  pi'ominence.  What  is  to 
precede  this  result,  and  what,  therefore,  it  implies  as  an 
antecedent  experience  and  purpose  in  every  soul,  must  be 
more  urgently  pressed.  In  other  words,  the  demand  is 
that,  more  keenly  apprehending  and  appreciating  the  inner- 
most significance  and  personal  requirements  of  the  truth  we 
teach,  we  shall  take  another  step  forward  in  the  adoption  of 
such  methods  of  labor  as  the  spiritual  facts  underlying  what 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  17 

we  aflSrm  suggest  and  require ;  and  ou  our  decision  in  re- 
spect to  this  demand  our  future  influence  and  fortune  as  a 
Church  are  suspended. 

Another  step  forward,  I  say  ;  for  it  is  no  new  thing  for  us 
to  take  a  "  new  departure  "  denominationally.  As  was  in- 
timated in  opening,  it  is  the  law  of  all  live  movements  thus 
to  go  forward  by  stages,  either  because  principles  are  grad- 
ually more  clearly  perceived,  or  because  of  a  ripening  un- 
derstanding as  to  the  best  instruments.  There  were  such 
new  departures  in  the  apostolic  church,  as  when  Peter,  after 
the  vision  of  the  sheet,  went  and  preached  to  Cornelius  and 
his  friends  ;  as  when  Paul  and  Baz-nabas,  being  rejected  of 
the  Jews,  "turned  to  the  Gentiles."  Every  church  which 
has  grown  in  the  apprehension  of  its  truth,  or  profited  by 
its  experience,  has  had  similar  new  departures.  We  have 
had  them  with  the  rest.  Let  us  look  back  a  moment,  and 
see  what  they  have  been. 

There  axefour  well-defined  periods  in  the  historj'-  of  our 
Church,  each  successively  marking  the  new  departures  we 
have  made: — 1.  The  patristic  period,  during  which  the 
whole  type  of  thought  and  faith  was  '  orthodox,'  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  doctrine  of  universal  salvation ; 
2.  The  period  of  transition,  extending  from  1796  to  (per- 
haps) 1818,  during  which  the  'orthodox'  type  of  faith 
was  supplanted  by  the  Unitarian  theory  of  God  and  the 
atonement,  and  related  points  (so  making  us  the  first  body 
of  Unitarian  Christians  in  the  country),  the  doctrine  of 
"  future  punishment "  being  still  retained;  3.  The  Ballou- 
ian  period,  extending  from  1817-18  to  (perhaps)  1845, 
during  which  the  influence  of  Mr.  Ballou  was  dominant,  and 
his  theory  as  to  the  immediate  felicity  of  all  souls  at  death 
became  the  general  sentiment  of  our  body  ;  4.  The  period 
of  reaction,  extending  from  1845  to  the  present  time,  during 
which  Father  Ballou's  theory  has,  in  its  turn,  been  gener- 
ally superseded,  and,  as  Dr.  Ballou  once  phrased  it,  "  the 
current  of  opinion  has  run  in  favor  of  a  moral  connection 
of  the  present  life  with  the  future." 

Here,  then,  we  have  four  distinct  departures  :  —  the  first, 
our  departure  from   '  orthodoxy,'   and  each  of  the  others  a 
departure,  quite  as  marked,  from  ground  we  had  been  occu- 
2 


18  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

pying,  to  a  new  position.  Each  of  these  was  an  advance. 
Putting-  their  own  interpretation  upon  them,  our  friends  of 
other  churches  talk  much  of  our  shifting  theology  ;  and, 
suiting  themselves  in  their  assumptions  thereupon,  they 
moralize,  greatly  to  their  own  satisfaction,  on  the  instability 
of  error,  holding  up  their  hands  in  wonder  at  the  fatuity 
which  imagines  that  a  system  so  vacillating  can  have  any 
future.  It  is  easy  at  any  time  to  retort  by  pointing  these 
friends  to  their  own  shifting  positions,  some  of  them  fatal 
to  the  very  substance  of  their  theology.  But,  not  now  to 
step  aside  for  this,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  these  several 
departures  warrant  no  such  unfavorable  inferences.  They 
are  only  the  stages  through  which  our  Church  has  grown 
into  the  perception  of  the  adjuncts  .and  relations  of  its  basic 
truth.  It  is  the  fortune  of  all  truth,  history  teaches,  to  be 
progressively  perceived  and  formulated.  The  apostles 
walked  personally  with  Christ  as  their  instructor,  but  who 
of  them  at  once  understood  the  spiritual  and  universal  pur- 
pose of  the  Gospel  ?  So  with  Luther's  followers  :  how 
many  on  the  instant  took  in  the  full  scope  of  his  principles, 
or  the  meaning  of  his  work  ?  And  so  of  all  crusades  against 
error  or  wrong,  and  all  moral  or  spiritual  reforms.  Of  which 
of  them,  that  has  attained  any  considerable  proportions,  has 
the  deepest  significance  ever  been  perceived  by  those  who 
have  first  burned  and  thrilled  with  its  new  message,  or 
fought  and  '  roughed  it'  in  its  earlier  battles  ?  In  common 
with  all  great  movements  of  thought,  or  religious  life,  we, 
as  a  Church,  have  only  illustrated  the  natural  order  of  things. 
We  have  not  happened.  Nothing  in  our  history  is  the 
result  of  accident.  We  have  come  of  laws  as  absolute  as 
gravitation,  or  any  law  of  growth  ;  and  these  successive 
changes  or  departures  simply  show  how  Universalism  has 
been  historically  developed.  They  indicate  no  modification 
of  final  principles,  and  therefore  justify  no  reflections  as  to 
the  fickleness  of  our  theology  in  respect  to  such  principles. 
They  only  show  the  different  phases  of  interpretation  and 
statement  in  which  other  and  more  purely  modal  principles 
have  been  hold  upon  these  as  their  common  foundation, 
much  as  the  varieties  of  soil  and  vegetable  growth  on  the 
globe  have  no  significance  as  to  what  is  primary  in  its  struc- 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  19 

tare,  only  as  to  what  has,  from  time  to  time,  been  deposited 
upon  its  surface.     Whether  God  exists  in  one  or  in  three 
persons  or  manifestations  ;  whether  he  is  so  sovereign  that 
all  human  action  is  necessitated,  or  so  sovereign  as  to  leave 
action  free  ;  whether  sin  is  exclusively  of  the  flesh,  or  of 
the  soul ;  whether  the  character  we  here  form  has   all  its 
moral  importance  in  this  world,  or  goes,  with  its    conse- 
quences, into  the  future,  —  these  and  like  inquiries  are  very 
grave,  and,   in  a  sense,  vital.     But  they  are   not  primal ; 
they  do  not  touch  bottom,  like  those  which  concern  the 
character  of  God,  and  the  spirit  and  issues  of  his  govern- 
ment.    In  respect  to  these,  Universalism  has  never  changed. 
On  other  points,  diiferences  have  been  numerous,  and  opin- 
ion has  fluctuated,  and  our  theology  has  been  protean  in  its 
forms,  so  that  the  Universalist  Church  has,  at  various  peri- 
ods, stood  for  quite  diverse  ideas.     But  as  regards  these 
final  principles,  there  has  been  no  difibrence  or  fluctuation. 
Murray,  and  Ballon,  and  Turner,  and  Hosea  Ballou  2d,  and 
all  whom  they  represent,  have  clasped  hands,  in   one   un- 
broken line,  in  the  unity  of  a  faith  "  without  variableness, 
or  the  shadow  of  turning ;  "  and,  from  the  hour  of  its  in- 
ception till  now,  the  Universalist  Church  has  steadily  stood 
for  precisely  the  same  thing,  viz.,  the  impartial  and  immuta- 
ble love  of  God,  destined  surely  to  triumph  through  Christ  in 
the  ultimate  redemption  of  all  soids.     Our  successive  depart- 
ures, it  thus  appears,  have  been  simply  as  to  the  form, 
never  as  to  the  substance,  of  faith.     Instead,  therefore,  of 
furnishing   any  occasion   for   adverse   criticism,   they  have 
quite   another  meaning.      Fossils   never   grow.      Only  live 
things  develop  and  mature.     These  departures   reveal  the 
processes  of  our  spiritual  evolution.     That  reactions,  crudi- 
ties,   and    various    fanciful    and    extreme    opinions,    should 
appear,  was  inevitable  in  such  a  breaking  up  of  old  beliefs 
as  the  past  hundred  years  have  witnessed  ;  and  it  speaks 
honorably  for  the  vitality  and  elasticity  of  our  Church  that, 
amidst  these  things,  while  immovably  fixed  as  to  our  funda- 
mental faith,  we  have  been,  each  for  himself,   so  free  to 
search  God's  word,  and  to  follow  tlie  light  given  us.    Thus, 
enslaved   by    no    creeds    and    hindered    by   no    traditions, 
thought  has  clarified,  our  great  principles  have  gradually 


20  OUR  NEW   DEPAETURE. 

pushed  themselves  into  fuller  and  clearer  expression,  the 
relations  and  proportions  of  truth  have  become  more  and 
more  manifest,  till,  as  the  result,  logic,  sentiment,  the 
Bible,  and  spiritual  law  having  contributed  each  its  part, 
Univeesalism  stands  forth  rounded  and  balanced  into  the 
coherent  and  harmonious  system  it  is. 

And  now,  having  attained  to  so  much  through  our  several 
preceding  departures,  the  time — returning  to  our  statement 
—  has  fully  come  for  another  step  forward.  Hitherto,  our 
departures  have  been  mainly  doctrinal,  though  naturally 
they  have  each  somewhat  affected  our  type  of  life  and 
methods  of  labor.  That  to  which  we  are  now  called  is 
vital  and  experimental.  It  is  demanded  of  us  that,  having 
reached  certain  definite  conclusions,  we  shall  disiinciUj  and 
systematically  give  ourselves  to  a  style  of  work  and  appeal  such 
as  they  logically  suggest  and  require.  There  is  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  what  has  come  to  be  the  predominant  conviction 
of  our  body.  It  is  that  death,  as  such,  works  no  moral 
change  ;  that  character  is  continuous,  except  as  moral  agen- 
cies modify  it ;  and  that  salvation,  being  a  change  of  charac- 
ter, is  possible  anywhere  only  as  the  result  of  such  agencies, 
acting  through  faith  and  penitence,  and  inducing  self-surren- 
I  der.  There  was  a  period  in  our  history  when  these  were 
\  regarded  as  debatable  positions.  With  the  most  of  us,  that 
\  period  some  time  ago  ceased  ;  and  these  positions  are  now 
I  held  to  be  axiomatic  truths,  as  little  open  to  legitimate 
debate  or  question  as  the  fact  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
character,  or  that  mechanical  or  chemical  causes  are  incom- 
petent to  produce  moral  effects.  And,  this  being  so,  should 
not  these  conclusions  give  inspiration  and  purpose  to  our 
ministry,  and  be  henceforth  the  basis  of  our  systematic  effort 
as  a  Church  ? 

Is  it  said  that  there  are  those,  —  among  them  brethren 
honored  and  beloved,  —  with  their  equal  rights  in  our  fel- 
lowship, who  do  not  yet  accept  these  conclusions  ?  But 
are  these  brethren  more  honored  or  beloved,  or  more  enti- 
tled to  hold  back  our  Church  from  the  kind  of  labor  befitting 
its  general  convictions,  than  were  Murray  and  his  coadju- 
tors, when,  notwithstanding  they  adhered  to  the  old  theo- 
ries, the  denomination,  under  the  lead  of  Ballou  and  Turner, 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  21 

planted  itself  on  the  Unitarian  platform  ?  or  than  were 
Turner,  and  Dean,  and  Loveland,  and  Willis,  and  ilosea 
Ballon  2d,  and  those  in  sympathy  with  them,  when,  follow- 
ing Father  Ballon,  the  denomination  so  g-enei'ally  committed 
itself  to  the  '  no-futnre  punishment'  theory  ?  The  question 
as  to  what  a  church  shall  do  is  never — or  ought  never  to 
be — a  question  of  persons,  but  always  of  principles  ;  and 
the  equal  rights  of  those  who  no  longer  represent  the  pre- 
vailing sentiment  of  the  body  are  summed  up  in  the  right  to 
hold,  and  with  entire  freedom  to  state  and  defend,  what  seems 
to  them  the  truth.  On  no  just  plea,  surely,  either  of  cour- 
tesy or  of  right,  can  the  exceptional  claim  to  annul  or  over- 
ride the  common  in  determining  the  tone  and  purpose  of  a 
church. 

It  is  the  law  of  every  developing  movement,  of  whatever 
nature,  that  the  thought  and  methods  of  each  stage  in  its 
progress  must  in  turn  give  way  to  those  of  the  stage  succeed- 
ing. This  has  been  signally  manifest  in  our  history.  With 
its  peculiar  philosophy  and  scriptural  interpretations,  each 
of  our  four  periods  has  had  its  peculiar  processes  of  argu- 
ment, and,  equally,  its  peculiar  methods  of  labor  and  appeal. 
Was  it,  in  either  of  these  periods,  in  any  sense  a  violation  of 
the  rights  of —  or  a  disregard  of  what  M'^as  due  to  —  those 
still  holding  the  philosophy  and  interpretations  of  former 
periods,  that  methods  and  appeals  in  keeping  with  its  own 
convictions  were  supplanting  those  of  the  period  preceding  ? 
Clearly,  the  only  rule  in  any  such  case  is  that  the  predom- 
inating convictions  of  a  church  must  of  right  give  character 
and  direction  to  its  life  and  work. 

Hence  alike  the  propriety  and  necessity  of  the  New  De- 
parture herein  contemplated.  Many  among  us  have  al- 
ready, individually,  taken  this  departure  ;  and  the  tone  and 
methods  of  our  Church  are,  in  important  respects,  to-day 
very  different  from  Avhat  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  But 
notwithstanding  these  changes,  and  though  the  Ballouian 
philosophy  has  been  generally  discarded,  we  are  still,  as  a 
church,  mainly  in  the  ruts  of  the  Ballouian  period  as  to 
methods  and  appeals.  What  is  now  required  of  us  is  that 
we  leave  these  ruts,  and,  in  a  concerted  and  systematic  direc- 
tion of  our  labor,  strike  out  into  aims  and  eiibrts  better  cor- 


22  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

responding  with  the  existing  state  of  our  denominational 
thought :  — just  as  Murray,  Adam  Streeter,  and  Rich  followed 
their  convictions,  and  struck  out  from  orthodoxy ;  just  as 
Ballon  and  Turner  struck  out  from  Murray  ;  and  just  as 
Ballou,  loyal  to  his  new  views,  struck  out  from  himself  and 
Turner.  New  wine  must  be  put  into  new  bottles  ;  and  if, 
as  is  indisputable,  the  current  of  new  or  modified  conclusions 
is  running  through  our  Church,  we  must  adjust  our  wheels  and 
give  direction  to  our  machinery  with  distinct  reference  to 
the  power  thus  supplied. 

Conceding  the  soundness  of  these  new  or  modified  con- 
clusions, what  but  this  can  we  do,  if,  as  the  stewards  of  God, 
we  would  be  faithful  ?  Are  we  not  imperfectly  administer- 
ing the  Gospel,  and  culpably  neglecting  important  spiritual 
leverage,  so  far  as  we  fail  duly  to  use  the  means  of  influence 
thus  placed  at  our  command  ?  If  what  is  thus  affirmed  be 
true,  death  in  itself  is  a  concern  only  of  the  body  ;  it  inter- 
rupts or  cancels  no  spiritual  law  ;  and  hence  nothing  is  to 
be  expected  from  it  in  the  way  of  release  from  moral  penalty, 
or  a  more  facile  admission  to  the  company  of  the  just,  since 
it  puts  no  man  into  any  easier  or  more  desirable  relations 
with  God,  and  absolves  no  one  from  any  condition  on  which 
salvation  here  depends.  The  good  man  disembodied,  pass- 
ing into  the  more  manifest  presence  of  God,  loses  none  of 
his  moral  attributes ;  is  a  good  man  there,  precisely  as  he 
was  a  good  man  here  —  that  is,  in  the  activity  of  his  own 
moral  faculties  ;  and  because,  carrying  in  himself  the  harvest 
of  his  prayers  and  saintly  endeavors,  he  still  loves  and 
chooses  to  go  forward  in  the  good  life.  The  bad  man,  just 
as  certainly,  passing  on  in  like  manner,  loses  none  of  his 
impiety,  selfishness,  or  sin  in  the  passage  ;  is  inevitably 
the  same  bad  man  at  his  first  moment  of  consciousness  on 
the  other  side  as  he  was  at  his  last  moment  of  consciousness 
here.  He  leaves  his  body  behind,  but  nothing  of  what  he 
morally  was,  because  character  is  not  of  the  body,  but  of 
the  soul.  Character,  as  the  one  actual  thing  in  us,  is  to 
be  changed,  here  or  hereaftar,  only  by  our  own  moral  choice. 
Death  has  no  alchemy  to  touch  it.  True,  death  does  strip 
off  the  flesh,  from  the  suggestions  and  lusts  of  which  char- 
acter for  evil  to  some  extent  here  comes,  and  in  the  use  of 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE. 


23 


which  character  here  manifests  itself.  It  does  introduce  us 
into  new  circumstances,  amidst  new,  and  probably  mightier, 
influences  ;  and  precisely  how  these  are  to  affect  us,  —  of 
what  awakenings  and  uplifting  impulses  and  resolves  they 
are  to  be  the  occasion,  or  what  '  disinthralment  of  our  spirit- 
ual powers  '  is  thus  to  follow,  no  one  can  certainly  say.  It 
is  reasonable  to  anticipate  something  from  the  facts  to  be 
thus  taken  into  account,  though  in  respect  to  these  things, 
he  is  the  wisest  man  who  dogmatizes  least.  But  in  itself, 
death  is  simply  transition,  with  no  transmuting  moral  effi- 
cacy. Except,  therefore,  as  the  bad  man,  passing  on,  puts 
off  sin  and  rises  into  a  new  character,  just  as  he  was  called 
to  put  off  sin  and  rise  into  a  new  character  here,  the  curse 
of  sin,  so  far  as  he  was  a  sinner,  still  abides  upon  him,  and 
will  abide, — perhaps  intensified  as  he  stands  consciously 
revealed  in  the  sight  of  God  and  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
Saviour. 

And  these  things  being  true,  are  they  things  to  be  ig- 
nored, or  put  to  no  use  ?  On  the  contrary,  how  grave  is 
their  import,  and  how  urgent  the  need  of  wise  action  for 
ourselves  and  others  which  they  enforce  !  We  have  some- 
thing, they  show  us,  indefinitely  at  stake  upon  the  charac- 
ters we  here  form.  Our  salvation,  under  God,  is  in  our  own 
hands.  There  is  peril  in  carelessness  and  sin  — not  for  time 
only,  but  beyond.  Faith,  penitence,  and  prayer,  what  we 
mean  by  spiritual  culture  and  the  Christian  life,  are  not  merely 
things  of  a  few  days'  concern  to  us  here,  to  be  with  impunity 
balanced  against  the  listlessness,  or  the  imagined  pleasures 
of  a  worldly  or  godless  life,  if  we  are  willing  to  wait  for 
death  to  put  us  right.  Death  cannot  put  us  right ;  and  these 
are  things,  therefore,  on  our  wise  choice  concerning  which, 
here  and  now,  unspeakable  interests  hang  :  just  as  "  now, 
while  it  is  called  to-day,"  our  welfare  is  suspended  on  any 
decision  we  are  called  to  make  between  right  and  wrong  ; 
just  as  always  something  is  every  hour  at  stake  on  our 
choice  of  action  as  to  what  the  next  hour  our  experience  and 
character  are  to.be.  Choosing  right  in  respect  to  God  and 
the  Saviour,  every  day  of  thoughtfulness  and  growing  spirit- 
uality is  so  much  gained  towards  that  life  and  felicity  which 
are  to  be  perfected  in  heaven.      Choosing  wrong,  every  day 


24  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE, 

of  indifference,  unbelief,  or  sin  is  a  day  of  darkness,  of 
hardening'  sensibility,  of  shrivelling  capacity,  of  increasing 
spiritual  emptiness  and  death  —  stretching  on,  on,  so  long 
as  our  choice  is  perverse,  or  we  fail  to  cry  out  for  God,  and 
to  turn  our  faces  towards  Him.  If,  then,  mere  physical 
paralysis,  destitution,  blindness,  or  pain  be  a  thing  for  us 
to  shrink  from  ourselves,  or  demanding  our  effort  for  its  re- 
lief and  cure  in  others,  how  much  more  this  darkness,  pov- 
erty, and  death  of  the  soul !  What  penalties  such  a  condition 
incurs,  on  the  other  side  of  death  no  less  surely  than  here  ! 
What  hazards  are  thus  involved  !  What  judgments  invited  ! 
What  losses  sustained  !  What  suffering  chosen  !  And  all 
this  being  granted,  is  any  ministry  or  any  church  faithful, 
which,  holding  these  convictions,  declines  to  conduct  its 
laboi's  and  frame  its  appeals  accordingly  ? 

The  reference  just  now  made  to  them  suflSciently  shows 
that  I  am  not  unmindful  of  those  among  us  who  have  not 
yet  accepted  this  general  view,  and  some  of  whom  oppose 
it  as  a  serious  error.  With  these  brethren,  however,  I  have 
here  no  debate.  "  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind."  I  am  not  now  making  an  argument,  —  only  stat- 
ing a  position,  and  what  consistency  with  it  requires.  My 
concern,  therefore,  is  wholly  with  those  who  do  accept  this 
view,  that  I  may  illustrate  Avith  what  emphasis  all  such  of 
us  are  called  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  souls,  to  use  the  con- 
clusions we  have  reached,  as,  if  they  are  true,  their  impor- 
tance demands. 

We  have  been,  for  many  years,  proceeding  upon  a  false 
assumption.  Contenting  ourselves  with  a  general,  and  often 
vigorous,  enforcement  of  truth  and  duty  by  such  sanctions 
as  the  present  furnishes,  we  have  quite  extensively  taken  it 
for  granted  that  any  attempt  to  influence  conduct  by  con- 
siderations drawn  from  its  consequences,  one  way  or  another, 
in  the  future  world,  is  somehow  inconsistent  with  our  funda- 
mental principle  that  we  must  do  right  because  it  is  right, 
and  not  from  any  mercenary  motive.  But  what  is  there  to 
justify  this  assumption  ?  That  we  are  to  do  riglit  because 
it  is  right,  is  certain.  Equally  certain  is  it  that  to  do  right, 
or  to  abstain  from  doing  wrong,  solely  because  of  reward  or 
punishment  anywhere,  is,  in  either  case,  to  be  a  hireling, 


THE  NEW  DEPAKTURE.  25 

rendering  to  God  no  acceptable  service.  But  are  the  con- 
sequences of  action  to  be,  therefore,  put  altogether  out  of 
the  case  ?  Why,  then,  does  God  so  constantly  appeal  to 
them  ?  Is  He  seeking  to  determine  action  on  false  princi- 
ples ?  It  is  only  in  view  of  its  consequences  that  the  in- 
trinsic nature  of  any  course  is  to  be  best  understood.  How 
are  pupils  fully  to  appreciate  what  knowledge  and  ignorance 
respectively  are,  as  related  to  their  welfare,  if  teachers  are 
never  to  urge  them  to  dih'gence  by  explaining  the  blessings 
of  the  former  and  the  penalties  of  the  latter  ?  Or,  how  are 
children  to  understand  what  industry  or  virtue  is  for  its 
own  sake,  if  they  are  never  to  be  told  of  the  disabilities  of 
poverty,  or  the  advantages  of  wealth,  or  if  the  disgrace  and 
wretchedness  of  vice,  and  the  beauty  and  joy  of  a  good  life, 
are  to  be  forbidden  themes  iu  their  instruction  ?  Universal- 
ists  have  never  been  backward  in  proclaiming  the  certain 
earthly  consequences  of  action,  both  of  penalty  aud  reward  ; 
and  if  any  consequences  may  be  legitimately  appealed  to, 
why  not  all  ?  If  consequences  here,  why  not,  with  equal 
propriety, — it  being  granted  that  there  are  such,  —  conse- 
quences hereafter  ?  AVhy  should  death  be  the  line  across 
which  the  appeal  must  not  reach  ?  or  how  can  the  whole 
case  be  fairly  made  up,  either  in  favor  of  a  Christian  life,  or 
against  a  godless  one,  except  as  all  that  both  involve  is 
duly  exhibited  ? 

Paul  shows  us  the  true  method.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  he  would  persuade  no  man  to  a  mercenary  discipleship. 
It  is  quite  as  needless  to  remind  those  for  whom  these  chap- 
tei's  are  specially  penned  how  decided  were  his  convictions 
as  to  the  results  of  God's  government.  Nothing  was  more  cer- 
tain to  him  than  that  Christ  is  to  "  put  down  all  rule,  and  all 
authority,  and  power"  antagonistic  to  God,  and  that  God  is 
thus  to  be  "  all  in  all."  In  his  distinct  foresight  of  this  issue, 
and  therefore  in  the  assurance  that  his  "  labor  was  not  in  vain 
in  the  Lord,"  he  found  that  which  constantly  sustained  and 
inspired  him  ;  which,  when  he  was  weak,  made  him  strong, 
and,  amidst  hostilities  and  discouragements,  lifted  him,  uu- 
appalled,  into  victory.  But  with  no  less  distinctness,  he 
saw,  too,  the  conditions  precedent,  and  his  sermons  and 
epistles  attest  the  zeal  and  constancy  with  which  he  empha- 


26  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

sized  these  conditions,  and  with  a  soul  all  aglow,  called 
those  whom  he  addressed  to  the  thoughtfulness  and  effort 
required.  See  what  he  saj's  in  his  fig-ure  of  the  Christian 
race,  Philippians  iii.  7-16  ;  and  again,  in  liis  First  Letter  to 
Timothy,  vi.  9-19  ;  and  still  again,  in  his  Second  Epistle,  iv. 
5-8.  See  especially  the  picture  he  gives  of  himself,  and  of 
his  motives,  in  liis  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  v.  1—11, 
and  particularly  in  these  words  :  "  Wherefore  we  labor, 
that,  whetlier  present  or  absent,  we  may  be  accepted  of 
him.  For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  his 
body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be  good  or 
bad.  Knowing,  therefore,  the  terror  of  the  Lord,  we  per- 
suade men.''"  Repeated  attempts  have  been  made  to  show 
that  this  language  has  no  allusion  to  immortality,  and  thus  to 
turn  aside  tue  point  the  Apostle  makes.  As  well  miglit  one 
allege  that  this  whole  grand  connection  is  only  a  pleasant 
talk  about  an  intended  visit  to  some  fair  island  in  the  Medi- 
terranean !  The  theme  unmistakably  is  our  passage  out  of 
the  mortal  into  the  immortal  realm  ;  and  the  point  is,  that 
there  as  well  as  here,  an  acceptance  with  Christ  is  some- 
thing to  be  won.  This  acceptance,  the  Apostle  gives  us  to 
understand,  does  not  come  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  is  not 
something  indiscriminately  given,  without  regard  to  antece- 
dent conduct  or  cliaracter.  It  is  something  accorded  only 
to  those  who  struggle  for  it.  The  Apostle  represents  him- 
self as  struggling  ibr  it,  therefore  —  in  no  mercenary  spirit, 
but  in  a  spirit  of  earnest  aspiration  towards  harmony  with 
God  and  the  Redeemer. 

And  mark  what  it  is  in  view  of  which  he  not  only  thus 
struggles  himself,  but  is  moved  to  persuade  and  animate 
others  :  "  For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ.  .  .  .  Knowing,  therefore,  the  terror  of  the  Lord, 
we  persuade  men."  This  does  not  mean  that  he  had,  for 
the  moment,  ibrgotten  the  love  of  God,  nor  that  he  would 
frighten  anybody  into  religious  living.  It  means  simply 
that  he  recognized  the  continuousness  of  Clirist's  offices 
of  instruction  and  judgment ;  that  he  perceived  severities 
as  well  as  tenderness  in  God's  dealings  ;  facts  to  arouse 
and  startle  as  well  as  to  attract  and  comfort.      Considering 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  27 

these  things,  and  looking  forward  to  the  conscious  reve- 
lation of  souls,  as,  released  from  the  environments  of  the 
flesh,  they  pass  into  the  personal  presence  of  the  Redeemer, 
for  approval  or  condemnation  according  to  the  character  in 
which  they  there  appear,  he  caught  a  new  impulse  to  plead 
with  and  persuade  men,  that  they  would  give  themselves 
in  holiness  to  God. 

And  administering  the  same  Gospel  as  Paul,  can  we  do 
better  than  to  administer  it  in  the  same  way  ?  lie  sought 
not  to  hire  or  terrify.  Such  effort  belonged  neither  to 
his  moral  philosophy,  nor  to  his  theory  of  a  regenerate  life. 
It  belongs  as  little  to  ours.  It  is  "the  goodness  of  God" 
that  "  leadeth  to  repentance,"  he  declared  ;  and  we  accept 
the  statement  as  the  fundamental  axiom  he  meant  it  to  be. 
The  soul  is  moved  for  its  redemption  only  by  that  which 
awakens  conscience  and  takes  hold  of  the  affections.  But 
there  is  something  terrible  in  a  life  of  sin,  in  absence  from 
God,  in  spiritual  insensibility,  collapse  and  decay ;  there 
is  something  beautiful  and  blessed  in  a  life  of  faith,  and  love, 
and  heavenly  sympathy,  and  divine  communion  ;  and  to 
portray  the  peril  of  the  one  and  the  attractions  of  the  other, 

—  to  emphasize  the  permanence  of  spiritual  law,  and  the 
unescapable  certainty  of  its  retributions,  —  to  tell  men  that 
God  will  never  deal  with  them  for  their  salvation  in  any 
mechanical  way,  as  if  they  were  things,  but  that  they  must 
work  out  their  own  salvation,  in  the  use  of  His  helps,  as 
accountable  souls,  —  to  insist  that  the  consequences  of  a 
material  or  atheistic  life  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  con- 
tinue until  such  a  life,  by  one's  own  choice,  is  repented  of 
and  abandoned,  —  to  preach  that  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ 
is  erected  wherever  souls  are  answerable  to  him,  and  that, 
passing  out  of  the  flesh,  we  pass  into  his  immediate  pres- 
ence, to  experience  in  his  approval  and  the  spiritual  harmo- 
nies of  our  own  being,  or  in  his  condemnation  and  our  own 
self-condemnation,  the  fruits  of  what  we  have  done  and  are, 

—  to  do  either  or  all  of  these  things  is  not  to  attempt  to  ter- 
rify or  to  hire.  It  is  simply  to  state  facts,  as  most  of  us 
believe  —  that  those  whom  we  seek  to  influence  may  be  in- 
duced to  act  wisely  in  view  of  them.  It  is,  indeed,  to  pro- 
ceed upon  the  identical  principle   on  which  those   proceed 


28  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

who  most  protest  against  any  appeal  to  consequences  in  the 
future  workl,  as  often  as  they  take  up  the  burden  of  the 
Bible,  and  say  with  the  prophet,  "  It  shall  be  well  with  the 
righteous,  for  they  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  their  doings,"  or, 
"  Woe  unto  the  wicked  !  for  the  reward  of  his  hands  shall 
be  given  him." 

In  view,  then,  of  these  several  considerations,  has  not  the 
time  fully  come  when,  appreciating  the  nature  of  our  posi- 
tion, and  the  demands  of  the  principles  and  conclusions  we 
hold,  we  shall  go  forward  in  the  New  Departure  which  has 
here  been  outlined  ? 

Three  things  arc  likely  to  be  urged  by  way  of  objection  :  — 

1.  It  will  be  said  by  some  that  we  shall  thus  be  '  imita- 
ting,' or  '  going  over  to  the  orthodox.'  But  for  any  such 
plea,  I  confess  ray  utter  want  of  respect.  It  has  already 
done  us  much  mischief;  and  if  we  have  any  conscience,  or 
common  sense,  we  shall  henceforth  treat  it  with  the  con- 
tempt it  deserves.  God  has  given  us  a  work.  What  is  it 
to  us  whom  we  'imitate,'  or  to  whom  we  'go  over,'  if 
it  is  but  clear  that  we  are  following  the  indications  of  His 
Providence  as  to  the  best  means  of  doing  it  ?  Our  business 
is  to  be  faithful ;  and  if  anywhere  there  is  truth  for  us  to 
learn,  or  serviceable  action  for  us  to  copy,  we  are  recreant 
to  our  trust  if  we  do  not  make  the  most  of  it.  Who  are  we 
that  we  should  assume  to  bo  above  profiting  by  the  experi- 
ence of  others  ?  Or,  who  are  we  that,  wherever  a  truth 
may  be  found  which  we  have  not  accepted,  or  which  for  any 
reason  we  have  failed  duly  to  enforce,  we  should  draw  our- 
selves up  in  a  pompous  self-sufficiency,  and  say.  We  will 
have  none  of  it?  Our  duty  is  to  harvest  instruction  from 
every  possible  field,  be  it  Eomanism,  or  Methodism,  Presby- 
terianism,  Episcopalianism,  or  any  other  branch  of  the  one 
common  Church  of  Christ.  '  Orthodoxy,'  as  organized  in 
all  these  forms,  has  much  to  teach  us.  AVe  shall  wickedly 
stultify  ourselves  if  we  refuse'to  learn. 

But  the  step  here  advocated  is  no  '  imitation  '  of  any- 
body, and  no  'going  over'  to  anybody.  It  implies  only 
consistency  with  the  logic  of  our  own  convictions.  We 
have  our  pronounced  principles.  These  involve  certain 
definite    practical   conclusions ;    and  these,  again,   suggest 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  29 

and  enjoin  certain  motives  and  appeals  equally  definite. 
The  simple  question  is,  whether  we  will  be  true  to  ourselves 
and  to  the  interests  of  souls  in  the  use  of  the  moral  instru- 
mentalities thus  put  into  our  hands. 

There  is  a  sense,  I  have  no  doubt,  in  which  all  Protes- 
tant churches  are  approaching  each  other.  The  '  evangel- 
icals '  are  moving  towards  us,  theologically :  we  are  mov- 
ing towards  them,  in  a  wiser  distribution  of  our  empha- 
sis, and  in  a  better  choice  of  methods.  In  the  name  of  the 
dear  Christ  who  would  have  us  all  one,  let  the  good  work 
go  on.  Let  us  make  the  most  of  our  agreements,  and  be 
alienated  as  little  as  may  be  by  our  diflcrences.  So  will  the 
unity  the  Master  prayed  for  come  ;  and  over  every  partition- 
wall  broken  down  and  every  difference  removed,  and  as 
every  new  sign  appears,  telling  that  the  now  sundered 
members  of  Christ's  body  are  becoming  more  "fitly  joined 
together  ...  to  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love,"  let  every 
good  man  shout,  Thank  God! — as  every  angel  in  heaven 
will  surely  say.  Amen  ! 

Any  accord  of  ours  with  '  orthodoxy '  —  as  to  methods, 
however,  let  it  be  understood,  argues  no  accord  in  doctrine. 
The  methods  belong  to  Cln-istianity,  —  not  to  '  ortliodoxy  ; ' 
and  to  approach  '  orthodoxy  ' — not  byway  of  imitation, 
but  in  a  clearer  apprehension  of  what  the  best  administra- 
tion of  the  Gospel  requires,  ■ — in  the  use  of  tliese  common 
Christian  methods,  is  one  thing  ;  —  to  approach  it  in  princi- 
ple or  ultimate  conclusion,  is  quite  another.  We  thus  ap- 
proach it  in  principle  or  conclusion,  only  when  we  limit  the 
extent  of  salvation,  or  materialize  its  substance.  We  do 
not  so  approach  it,  however  we  may  emphasize  the  fact  that 
salvation  lias  its  conditions.  '  Orthodoxy,'  partial,  arbi- 
trary, judicial  in  spirit,  proceeds  on  one  plane  of  principle 
and  purpose,  to  one  end.  The  conception  of  Christianity 
which  we  represent,  impartial  and  parental,  proceeds  on  a 
very  different  plane,  to  a  very  different  end.  One  counts 
law,  the  other  counts  souls,  as  God's  paramount  care. 
That  thinks  chieflj'-  of  vengeance,  miscalled  justice  ;  this  of 
reconciliation.  That  makes  it  its  business  to  save  souls 
from  hell ;  this  to  deepen  and  magnify  a  sense  of  the  intrin- 
sic peril  and  curse  of  wrong.      That  points  to  Christ  as  (ur 


80  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

substitute  in  the  endurance  of  the  penalty  of  God's  law,  and 
calls  us  to  faith  in  him  as  the  expedient  to  get  us  into 
heaven  wdien  we  die  ;  this  presents  Christ  as  the  messenger 
of  God's  love  and  truth,  and  calls  us  to  faith  in  him  as  the 
power  of  God  to  build  up  heaven  within  ourselves  wherever 
we  may  be.  That  seeks  to  have  us  '  make  our  peace  witl 
God '  by  doing  something  to  change  Ilis  feelings  and  atti- 
tude towards  us  ;  this  by  quickening  us  to  a  change  of  feel- 
ing and  attitude  towards  Him.  And,  finally,  that  portray  s 
a  flaming  abyss  which  God  has  built  for  the  endless  tor- 
ture of  sinners  after  death,  and,  leading  us  to  its  brink, 
essays  to  terrify  us  into  a  religious  life  ;  this  shows  first 
that  all  separation  from  God,  or  lack  of  sympathy  with  Him, 
is  darkness,  death,  and  hell,  and  then,  proclaiming  that  the 
mere  decease  of  the  body  avails  nothing  to  release  us  from 
it,  seeks  to  persuade  us  by  the  love  of  God  and  the  Saviour, 
by  the  blessings  of  goodness  and  by  the  curse  of  sin,  to 
turn  straightway  to  God  through  Cln-ist,  since,  whether 
present  or  absent,  in  the  flesh  or  out,  he  is  the  sole  gate 
into  a  divine  acceptance  and  the  best  life. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  New  Departure  here  urged  in 
no  way  involves  any  sacrifice  of  our  Universalist  identity. 
It  means  simply  a  consistent  enforcement  of  our  own  princi- 
ples, in  no  assimilation  to  '  orthodoxy,'  except  that  we  are 
to  be  willing  to  profit  by  every  example  of  earnestness,  of 
systematic  and  effective  work,  and  of  Avhole-hearted  conse- 
cration, wherever  it  may  appear.  They,  it  is  worth  while 
to  remark  in  passing,  are  the  only  Universalists  at  all  open 
to  the  charge  of  approaching  the  old  '  orthodoxy '  in  prin- 
ciple, who  insist  that  salvation  is  something  to  be  conferred 
upon  us  at  death  without  any  condition  of  faith  or  effort, 
here  or  elsewhere,  on  our  part. 

2.  It  will  be  alleged,  perhaps,  that  the  New  Departure 
here  urged  involves  a  cessation  of  our  doctrinal  work.  But 
it  is  not  so.  I  have  already  said  that  we  are  to  abate  noth- 
ing from  the  emphasis  or  constancy  with  which  wo  proclaim 
our  grand  result,  and  that  argument  and  exposition,  attack 
and  defence,  will  still  bo  required  ;  and  as  to  our  work  of 
Christian  teaching,  I  have  seriously  failed  in  what  I  intended, 
if  it  has  not  been  implied,  as  the  underlying  thought  of  all 


THE   NEW   DEPARTURE.  31 

that  has  been  said,  that  this  is,  of  course,  to  proceed. 
What  is  contemplated  in  this  plea  for  a  New  Departure,  as 
will  more  fully  appear  in  the  ciiaptors  that  are  to  follow,  is 
—  only  less  of  antagonism,  denial,  and  controversy,  for 
mere  doctrinal  ends,  and  a  great  deal  more  of  afiSrmative, 
constructive,  applying  labor,  for  vital  and  practical  re- 
sults. 

I  am  free  to  confess,  indeed,  that  there  seems  to'rae  to  bo 
little  occasion  for  us  to  preach  doctrine  as  a  means  of  indji- 
cing  a  rejection  of  the  sacrificial  theology,  oi'  of  making  con- 
verts to  Universalist  ideas.  Numerous  outside  agencies  are 
rapidly  doing  these  things  for  us.  Years  ago  one  oi  onr 
thoughtful  laymen  (Ex-Governor  Washburn),  speaking  of 
such  agencies,  truly  said  that  they  are  accomplishing  more 
for  Universalism,  in  these  respects,  than  Universalists 
themselves.  But  large  numbers,  including  not  a  few  who 
bear  the  Universalist  name,  have  only  the  crudest  concep- 
tions of  what  Universalism  is.  The  grounds,  relations, 
and  arguments  of  the  truth,  and  the  meaning  of  the  Bible  as 
bearing  upon  it,  are  not  understood.  For  these  reasons, 
Universalism  should  still  be  preached  as  a  doctrine.  And 
there  is  another  reason.  Universalism,  we  believe,  is  only 
another  name  for  Christianity  ;  and  Christianity,  though  it 
culminates  in  a  life,  is,  in  essence,  a  sj'stem  of  principles  — 
that  is,  of  doctrines.  Hence  only  as  these  doctrines  arc  ap- 
prehended is  Christianity  apprehended,  or  can  it  become 
most  effectually  a  power  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  To 
preach  about  Christianity,  or  about  what  it  requires,  is  not 
to  preach  Christianity,  nor  for  the  fulfilment  of  Christian 
ends.  Christianity  is  preached  only  as  its  doctrines  are 
preached,  and  only  thus  are  the  materials  and  inspiration 
for  the  Christian  life  supplied.  "  Sanctify  them  through  (hi/ 
truth,"  was  our  Lord's  prayer  for  his  disciples ;  and  we 
never  find  him  or  his  apostles  preaching  for  the  conversion 
and  sanctification  of  men  except  by  preaching  doctrines  as 
the  basis  of  the  precepts  they  enjoined.  They  preached  prin- 
ciples, and  not  about  principles,  showing  men  how  and  why 
to  be  good,  instead  of  talking  about  goodness.  And  what 
was  wise  in  them  is  no  less  wise  in  us.  Nor  can  we,  or 
any  other  church,  do  God's  work  of  translating  Ilis  truth 


32  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

into  life,  except  as  they  sought  to  do  it  —  upon  a  doctrinal 
foundation. 

But  observe,  they  never  preached  doctrine  simply  as  doc- 
trine, nor  with  reference  to  any  mere  intellectual  contest  or 
victory.  Neither  should  we.  They  preached  it  only  to 
rebuke  sin,  and  impel  to  holiness.  We  should  preach  it 
only  for  the  same  purpose.  Like  theirs,  our  business  is  to 
quicken  and  save  souls.  What  the  time  and  the  world 
most  call  for  is  moral  inspiration.  It  is  important  what  one 
believes  concerning  God,  and  the  spirit  and  issues  of  His 
government.  But  the  question  of  transcendent  concern  is, 
not  whether  one  believes  in  Universalism,  but  whether, 
believing  it,  or  professing  to  believe  it,  he  is  showing  him- 
self experimentally  a  believer.  Is  he  filled  with  a  sense  of 
obligation  to  God  and  the  Saviour  ?  Is  he  a  man  of  prayer  ? 
Does  he  abhor  sin  ?  Is  he  melted  and  humbled  at  the  foot 
of  the  cross  ?  Does  his  soul  glow  with  religious  affection  ? 
Is  his  being  instinct  with  spiritual  life  ?  These  are  the 
only  results  for  which  any  church  has  a  right  to  exist ;  and 
only  to  produce  these  should  we  preach  doctrine,  or  any- 
thing else. 

This  is  the  fact  to  which  the  New  Departure  here  outlined 
would  call  attention  :  not  to  induce  any  neglect  or  over- 
sight of  doctrine,  but  that  the  purpose  of  all  Christian 
teaching  may  be  more  distinctly  recognized,  and  that  Uni- 
versalism as  a  doctrine  may  be  so  conceived  and  adminis- 
tered as  to  do  more  in  religiously  quickening  souls,  and 
leading  them  to  God. 

3.  The  other  objection  I  anticipate  is,  that  what  is 'here 
proposed  is  no  new  departure  at  all.  This  may  come  from 
two  entirely  opposite  quarters. 

On  the  one  hand,  those  in  sympathy  with  the  general  pur- 
pose here  in  view  may  say  that  what  is  urged  should  not  bo 
spoken  of  as  a  'new  departure,'  for  the  reason  that  so  to 
designate  it  is  to  fail  to  do  justice  to  the  actual  condition  of 
our  church-thought,  is  to  overlook  what  has  already  oc- 
curred, and  is  thus  to  imply  what  is  not  true.  What  is 
proposed,  they  may  say,  has  been  for  a  considerable  time  in 
progress  ;  and  for  themselves,  they  may  add,  they  took  the 
departure  long  ago.     But  if  these  brethren  will  turn  back  a 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  33 

few  pages  (p.  21),  tliey  will  see  that  I  have  distinctly  said 
that  many  among  us  liave  already  individually  taken  this 
departure,  and  that,  in  important  respects,  the  tone  and 
methods  of  our  Church  to-day  are  very  diflerent  from  what 
they  were  twenty  years  ago.  Moreover,  the  whole  plea  I 
here  make  proceeds  on  the  ground  that  the  change  of  senti- 
ment which  has  taken  place  among  us  demands  it.  What 
I  am  anxious  to  see,  as  I  intimated  in  the  connection  re- 
ferred to,  is  a  concerted,  systematic  movement,  by  common 
consent  striking  out  into  the  new  style  of  labor  that  is 
called  for,  and  distinctively  committing  us  as  a  cJnax-h  to  it. 
As  a  matter  of  personal  conviction  and  method,  what  is 
recommended  has,  to  some  extent,  already  been  done  by 
not  a  few  of  us.  As  a  denominational  movement,  it  has  yet 
to  be  done.  Only  in  this  latter  sense  do  I  speak  of  it  as  a 
neiv  departure,  and  in  this  sense  it  clearly''  is  so. 

Then,  on  the  other  hand,  it  will  be  said  by  those  opposed 
to  the  course  here  recommended,  that  it  would  be  no  new 
departure,  only  a  return  of  our  Church  to  the  old  doctrine 
of  '  future  punishment,'  and  thus  a  going  back  to  ground 
we  have  once  abandoned.  But  any  such  objection  is  with- 
out basis  in  fact.  I  can  conceive,  indeed,  that  it  might 
have  in  it  some  element  of  fact,  and  yet  be  no  objection. 
In  the  violence  of  its  reaction  from  existing  opinions,  a 
movement  may  for  a  time  swing  away  from  some  truth  to 
which  it  finds  it  necessary  afterward  to  return  ;  and  such  a 
return,  in  its  place,  is  a  going  forward  as  really  as  though 
the  truth  were  then  first  announced.  In  this  case,  howevei', 
the  objection  has  not  even  so  much  to  make  it  valid.  The 
theory  of  '  future  punishment,'  as  it  prevailed  in  our  early 
history,*  —  and  as  it  has  usually  prevailed,  —  proceeds  on 
the  'orthodox'  predicate  that  God's  administration  is  not 
now  one  of  just  and  equal  moral  awards  ;  that  this  earthly 
life  is  one  of  probation,  not  of  exact  retribution  ;   and  that. 


*  Murray  and  his  followers,  it  should  be  said,  disclaimed  the  doctrine 
of  future  punishment  as  a  penal  infliction,  as  they  disclaimed  all  pun- 
isliment  in  any  penal  sense.  Christ,  they  held,  has  paid  our  debt  under 
the  law,  and  hence,  in  justice,  there  can  be  no  more  punishment  for  sin. 
Suflerings  do,  indeed,  follow  transgression,  after  death,  as  here;  but 
these,  it  was  alleged,  are  consequential,  not  penal. 
3 


^ 


34  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

in  the  case  of  those  who  die  unsaved,  the  account  is  to  be 
squared  only  as  they  are  still  further  punished  on  the  other 
side  of  the  grave.  In  other  words,  the  theory  is  one  of 
debt  and  credit,  affirming  in  eflect  that  the  sinful  and  unbe- 
lieving at  death  stand  charged  with  so  much  punishment 
due,  and  that  the  books  can  be  balanced  only  as  this  is  here- 
after visited  upon  them.  But  all  such  theorizing  is  now 
happily  exploded  among  us,  as  it  is  fast  passing  out  of  the 
thought  of  all  well-informed  and  reflective  minds. 

The  Ballouian  period,  in  the  order  of  our  development, 
did  incalculable  service,  not  alone  to  us,  but  to  the  whole 
Christian  world,  in  this  respect.  Herein,  doubtless,  was  its 
providential  purpose.  Up  to  that  period,  the  whole  interest 
of  our  being  was  focalized  in  the  future  world.  Everything 
here  was  thought  to  be  morally  at  loose  ends  —  the  wicked 
not  punished  ;  the  good  not  rewarded  ;  every  man  lei't  to 
live  as  he  might  list,  with  occasion  only  to  think  of  that  ter- 
rible day  of  account  yonder,  when  the  books  are  to  be 
opened,  and  all  are  to  be  brought  to  judgment.  So  far  as 
this  world  is  concerned,  the  whole  current  of  theological 
teaching  averred,  there  is  no  motive  to  live  a  godly  life,  the 
preponderance  of  motive  being  rather  on  the  side  of  a  life 
of  sin,  were  it  not  for  the  terrible  hour  of  recompense  that 
is  coming  ;  but  then  all  the  hardships  and  sacrifices  of  the 
good  are  to  be  paid  for  by  the  felicities  of  heaven,  and  all 
the  rejoicings  and  prosperities  of  the  bad  are  to  be  balanced 
by  the  torments  of  hell.  Thus  time  was  nothing.  Eternity 
was  everything.  Hosea  Ballou  —  speaking  of  him  as  leader 
and  representative  —  made  war  against  all  this.  lie  pro- 
claimed God's  instant  and  constant  moral  rule.  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  Bible,  and  familiarized  the  popular  ear  with 
the  statements,  long  overlooked,  that  God  "verily  is  a  God 
that  judgeth  in  the  earth  ;  "  that,  "  though  hand  join  in 
hand,  the  wicked  shall  not  be  unpunished  ;  "  that  "the  waij 
of  transgressors  is  hard;"  that  "there  is  no  peace,  saith 
the  Lord,  to  the  wicked  ;  "  and  that,  while  "  to  be  carnally- 
minded  is  death,  to  be  spiritually-minded  is  life  and  peace." 
He  did  not  fail  to  recognize  the  fact  that  time  is  oiten  re- 
quired for  certain  judgments  to  culminate  and  burst  upon 
evil-doers,   as   also   for  certain  fruits  of  righteousness  to 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  35 

ripen  into  most  conspicuous  display.  But,  he  iterated  and 
reiterated,  God  reigns  nevertheless,  holding  ■every  soul  to 
rigid  account.  He  never  suspends  payment,  or  does  busi- 
ness on  credit ;  but  by  inviolable  laws,  according  to  what 
one  is  in  character,  must,  every  moment,  be  his  experience 
of  loss  and  pain,  or  peace.  And,  thus  preached,  how  this 
doctrine  was  ridiculed  and  denounced  1  What  weapons  of 
sarcasm,  and  argument,  and  misapplied  Scripture  were 
launched  against  it  !  What  idiocy  and  '  moral  insanity  ' 
it  was  alleged  to  indicate  I  What  appeals  to  appearances 
and  seeming  facts  were  made,  often  "with  great,  swelling 
words,"  to  demonstrate  how  opposed  it  was  to  the  lessons 
of  actual  daily  life  !  But,  despite  all,  the  testimony  was 
persistently  given,  and,  with  untiring  pei'tinacity,  the  Bible 
was  cited,  history  and  experience  were  invoked,  and  the 
nature  of  things,  and  the  necessities  of  spiritual  law,  were 
adduced  in  its  support  and  demonstration.  As  the  result, 
no  moral  philosophy  would  now  be  thought  sound  that  did 
not  include  this  doctrine  as  one  of  its  cardinal  ideas  ;  and 
no  intelligent  pulpit,  at  all  abreast  of  the  time,  fails  more  Or 
less  positively  to  enforce  it.  Had  Hosea  Ballou  done  noth- 
ing else  except  so  to  put  into  the  thought  and  consciousness 
of  Christendom  this  vital  fact  concerning  the  instant  and 
constant  operation  of  God's  moral  government,  he  would 
deserve  to  be  honored  as  one  of  the  world's  great  reform- 
ers ;  and  while  most  of  us  now  are  compelled  to  think,  and 
on  occasion  do  not  scruple  to  say,  that  in  our  judgment 
some  of  the  theorizings  and  conclusions  of  the  Ballouian 
period  have  been  exceedingly  mischievous  as  practical  ele- 
ments of  our  denominational  life,  we  hold  it  as  undeniable 
that,  on  the  whole,  it  has  helped  us  and  helped  the  world 
onward,  and  that  these  undesirable  speculations,  inevitably 
incident  to  such  a  drift-period  of  thinking,  have  been  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  result  thus  accomplished, — a 
result,  it  is  perhaps  for  us  to  consider,  that  could  have  been 
so  widely  and  thoroughly  reached  only  as  attention  was 
arrested,  and  discussion  engendered,  and  feeling  stirred  by 
the  extreme  putting  of  this  idea  in  the  doctrine  of  '  no 
future  punishment.'  The  evil  of  overstatement  is  not  unfre- 
quently  thus  overruled  for  the  permanent  advance  of  truth. 


36  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

At  all  events,  the  Universalist  church  is  now  immovably 
fixed  in  this  position  ;  and  what  is  here  urged  is  no  going 
back  to  any  outgrown  and  abandoned  doctrine,  but  really  a 
new  departure,  because  a  more  logical  and  strenuous  alEr- 
mation  of  the  principle  underlying  this  position  as  always 
and  everywhere  true.  And  if,  as  this  principle  alleges,  God 
does  actually  deal  with  us  so  rigidly  according  to  our  char- 
acter, holding  us  instantly  and  constantly  to  account,  to 
what  but  the  very  thing  here  pressed  are  we  called  as  the 
duty  most  imperatively  devolving  on  us  ?  For,  if  God  does 
so  hold  us  to  account,  then,  no  matter  where  we  may  be, 
CHARACTER  bccomes  the  one  grand  concern  on  which  every- 
thing in  our  moral  experience  depends.  And,  this  being 
so,  how  can  we,  as  a  Christian  church,  at  all  discharge  our 
obligations,  unless  we  hold  up  this  fact,  and  summon  men 
to  act  in  view  of  it,  as  the  fact  of  solemn  and  perpetual 
significance  it  is  ? 

Contenting  myself,  then,  with  those  rejoinders  to  the 
objections  likely  to  be  made  to  the  purpose  of  these  pages, 
the  question  returns,  lias  not  the  time  fully  come  for  the 
New  Departure  here  sketched  ?  If  the  Gospel  of  Christ  be 
indeed  God's  ministry  of  healing  and  life  to  a  perishing 
world,  — if  sin  really  is  a  wrong,  on  account  of  which  we 
should  feel  guilt}',  and  a  curse,  without  regard  to  time  or 
place,  from  which  we  need  escape,  —  if  especially  it  be  true, 
as  we  have  come  so  generally  to  believe,  that  there  is  un- 
speakable peril  in  sin,  that  every  human  soul  has  something 
at  stake  on  its  character  and  choice,  not  simply  for  this 
world,  but  for  all  worlds,  and  that,  till  it  heartily  repents, 
and  gives  itself  to  God  through  Christ,  it  is  and  must  be, 
according  to  its  lack  .of  religious  quickening  and  purpose, 
in  darkness  and  spiritual  death,  whether  in  this  world  or 
any  other,  —  is  it  not  alike  the  call  of  God  and  of  needy 
souls  that  we  give  ourselves  as  never  before  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  these  truths,  and  thus  to  the  endeavor  to  make 
them,  to  the  widest  possible  extent,  "  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation "  in  the  world  ? 

Let  no  one  raise  the  cry  that  this  is  a  proposition  to  dis- 
turb the  existing  harmony  of  our  Church,  or  to  set  up  new 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  37 

standards  of  Universalist  fellowship.  Nothing  is  here  said 
of  any  new  terms  of  fellowship  ;  and  it  is  preposterous  to 
suppose  that  the  harmony  of  our  Church  is  to  be  disturbed 
by  any  honest  effort  to  call  us  more  perfectly  to  meet  the 
demands  of  any  convictions  to  which  we  have  generally 
arrived.  Our  Church,  thank  God,  is  at  length  one  ;  and 
palsied  be  the  hand  or  tongue  that,  except  on  some  issue  of 
overmastering  principle,  would  divide  it.  Our  platform  is 
laid  ;  and  as  it  is,  so  in  substance  it  must  be.  We  need  no 
new  departure  in  this  respect.  Whoever  believes  in  the 
Bible  as  the  record  of  God's  successive  revelations,  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  authoritative  Son  of  God,  and  in 
the  final  redemption  of  all  souls  through  Christ,  is  a  Uni- 
versalist, however  he  may  interpret  the  Bible  on  incidental 
points.  We  have  always  had  the  largest  liberty  of  opinion 
on  this  common  platform.  This  liberty  of  opinion  must 
continue.  But  it  is  clearly  not  only  fit,  but  obligatory  upon 
lis,  that  the  dominant  state  of  opinion  shall  give  distinctive 
tone  and  direction  to  our  church-life.  It  would  be  both  a 
very  factious  and  a  very  unreasonable  minority  that  should 
deny  this,  be  the  dominant  opinion  what  it  might ;  and, 
while  no  one's  freedom  of  opinion  or  of  utterance  is  to  be 
trenched  upon,  our  general  conviction  as  to  the  nature  of 
salvation,  and  as  to  what  is  dependent  on  faith  and  prayer 
and  spiritual  co-operation  with  God,  must,  unless  we  are  to 
fail  of  the  errand  appointed  us,  henceforth  detennine  our 
estimate  as  to  lolial  we  have  to  do,  and  how  we  shall  seek 
to  do  it. 

This,  then,  is  the  New  Departure  for  which  it  is  the  pur- 
pose of  this  book  to  plead.  It  is  not,  indeed,  the  only  new 
departure  to  Avhich  we  are  called,  as  we  go  forward  to  make 
up  the  record  of  another  century.  Intellectually  we  need 
to  make  such  a  departure,  and,  not  less,  j^i'actically. 

The  Universalist  believer  should  be  second  to  no  other  in 
the  breadth  and  freshness  of  his  thinking,  in  the  largeness 
of  his  mental  hospitality  and  acquirements,  or  in  the  warmth 
and  comprehensiveness  of  his  moral  and  philanthropic  con- 
cern. And  the  Universalist  church  must  be  nowhere  ex- 
celled in  its  zeal  for  education  ;  in  the  ripeness  and  fulness 


38  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

of  its  culture  ;  in  its  superiority  to  prescription  and  preju- 
dice ;  in  its  readiness  to  welcome  light,  come  it  whence 
it  may  ;  or  in  its  wise  and  free-handed  plans  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  ignorant,  and  the  rescue  of  the  perishing.  Our 
record  in  these  respects  is  creditable,  but  we  must  be  am- 
bitious for  far  better  things. 

Sympathetically,  Uuiversalism  is  the  synonyme  of  a  love 
that  includes  all  souls,  and  of  a  saving  purpose  which  leaves 
not  one  out ;  and  it  will  be  a  shame  to  us  if,  as  our  numbers 
and  resources  increase,  we  do  not  put  ourselves,  in  respect 
to  all  philanthropic  and  practical  Christian  activities,  in  the 
van  of  the  church,  where,  as  the  representatives  of  such  a 
gospel,  we  belong. 

And  so,  theoretically,  Uuiversalism  is  equally  the  syno- 
nyme of  "  ivhaisoeve?^  is  true;"  and,  as  its  disciples,  it  is 
incumbent  on  us  to  be  open,  receptive,  inquiring,  accord- 
ingly. There  are  reh'gionists  who  are  afraid  of  science,  aud 
who,  amidst  the  jostlings  of  modern  discovery,  are  .con- 
stantly putting  forth  their  hands  to  steady  the  ark  of  God. 
And  occasion  enough  they  have  for  apprehension.  But  a 
true  religion  has  nothing  to  fear  from  any  true  science. 
Science  is  the  knowledge  of  God's  doings  demonstrated  to 
our  reason  ;  religion  is  the  knowledge  of  the  same  God  re- 
vealed to  our  faith.  Let  science  explore  and  "demonstrate 
wheresoever  or  whatsoever  it  may,  then,  the  religion  that 
really  has  God's  truth  in  it  can  possibly  come  to  no  harm. 
For  this  reason,  we  have  nothing  to  apprehend,  only,  in  the 
way  of  illustration  and  confirmation,  everything  to  expect. 
We  should  welcome  discovery,  therefore,  and  keep  abreast 
of  the  most  advanced  knowledge,  that  we  may  see  how  all 
truth  harmonizes,  and  be  led  up  every  shining  path  which  it 
opens,  with  strengthened  faith,  into  sweeter  nearness  to 
God. 

Speculations  there  are,  indeed,  calling  themselves  science, 
irreverent,  self-sufficient,  which,  skimming  the  surface,  or 
jumping  at  conclusions,  set  themselves,  "  with  malice  pre- 
pense," to  undermine  all  religion,  and  relegate  the  world 
back  to  Paganism.  And  a  habit  of  scientific  assumption, 
too,  there  is,  and  a  disposition  to  insist  that  all  inquiries 
must  be  pushed  in  an  exclusively  scientific  spirit,  both  of 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE.  39 

which  repudiate  faith  as  a  rightful  element  in  any  conclu- 
sion. All  these  we  must  be  able  to  estimate  at  their  real 
worth,  and  to  dispose  of  as  they  deserve.  But  true  science 
we  must  hail  as  always  our  ally  and  friend,  to  be  not  simply 
accepted,  but  loved,  served,  in  every  legitimate  way  fur- 
thered and  encouraged. 

And  so  in  respect  to  all  that  is  highest  and  broadest  in 
the  intellectual  activities  of  the  age,  and  of  the  coming  ages. 
Not  only  must  we  have  our  scientists  and  educators.  We 
must  have  our  philosophers,  our  discoverers,  our  historians,, 
our  thinkers  and  workers  in  every  field,  kings  and  priests 
among  the  most  regal  and  priestly  leaders  of  the  world,  to 
whom  none  who  wish  to  know  the  best  things  can  afford  to 
be  indifferent.      We  shall  have  them. 

And,  so  led,  our  whole  Church  must  be  pervaded  by  a 
kindred  spirit.  We  know  not,  indeed,  to  what  momentous 
office,  in  relation  to  the  Bible  and  Christianity,  this  Church 
of  ours  is,  in  the  providence  of  God,  yet  to  be  called. 
With  'orthodoxy,'  science  and  all  progressive  thought  are 
in  irrepressible  conflict.  All  the  discoveries  and  tendencies 
of  the  time  are  at  war  with  its  old  statements  and  interpre- 
tations. Ere  we  are  aware  of  it,  therefore,  the  fortunes  of 
Cliristianity  as  a  historical  religion,  humanly  speaking,  may 
be  in  our  keeping;  and  upon  us,  reviled  as  we  have  been  as 
the  enemies  and  rejecters  of  the  Bible,  its  final  defence  and 
vindication  may  devolve.  Ours  it  should  be  to  prepare  /or 
so  grave  a  trust,  ready  and  waiting  to  keep  step  with  every 
new  advance,  that  whatever  results  earnest  thought  and 
legitimate  investigation  may  anywhere  furnish,  may  be  made 
by  us  to  tell  fur  the  further  verification  of  truth  and  the 
glory  of  God. 

All  this,  however,  will  come  naturally  in  the  order  of 
events,  if  we  keep  ourselves  in  other  respects  a  live  and 
faithful  people.  Our  deepest  and  most  imperative  need  is 
spiritual  awakening  and  impulse.  This  is  the  deepest  and 
most  imperative  need  of  all  Ciiristendom.  The  old  theolo- 
gies are  dying.  Souls  are  adrift.  Minds  are  questioning 
and  doubting.  Hearts  are  hungering.  Life  is  largely  with- 
out centre  or  mastery,  except   from  beneath.     What   they 


40  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

need  is  spiritual  arrest,  quickening-,  anchorage.  Ours  it  is, 
if  we  actually  have  any » business  in  the  world,  to  answer 
these  great  uses.  We  must  arrest,  attract,  religiousl}'-  sat- 
isfy, and  vitalize  what  will  else  be  without  any  spiritual 
ministry  or  direction.  And,  to  do  this,  we  must  be  a  peo- 
ple profoundly  conscious  of  spiritual  realities,  and  glowing 
with  spiritual  life.  Our  principles  are  final  and  eternal. 
Our  standards  of  fellowship  are  all  we  require,  if  honestly 
interpreted  and  faithfully  enforced.  In  every  outward  par- 
ticular we  are  well  equipped  for  the  work  assigned  us. 
Our  one  thing  wanting  is  that,  taking  up  the  words  of  the 
apostle,  we  shall  say  with  high  resolve,  "  Whereto  we  have 
already  attained,  let  us  walk  by  the  same  rule  ;  let  us  mind 
the  same  thing."  We  have  thus  far  carried  the  torch  of 
God's  universal  and  immutable  love  to  dissipate  the  shadows 
and  burn  up  the  errors  of  the  old  interpretations,  disclosing 
afar  off  the  issue  to  which,  under  His  guardianship,  all 
things  surely  tend.  We  are  now  called  to  use  this  torch 
more  clearly  to  disclose  the  conditions  on  which  all  spiritual 
results  depend,  and  on  which  alone  the  prophesied  fact  of 
Christ's  efficiency  can  become  a  fact  accomplished  in  any 
soul.  We  are  to  emphasize  spiritual  law.  We  are  more 
specifically  to  aim  at  definite  spiritual  ends.  More  posi- 
tively recognizing  the  work  of  saving  souls  as  the  work  of 
every  Christian  church,  we  are  to  address  ourselves  as 
never  before  to  this  labor.  In  one  word,  having  fought  the 
battle  and  won  the  position  we  have,  ourselves  meanwhile 
growing  into  greater  distinctness  of  intellectual  and  moral 
perception,  we  are  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  position  we 
have  reached  to  enter  on  our  second  century  seeing  more 
clearly  precisely  what,  as  the  servants  of  the  world's  Re- 
deemer, we  have  to  do,  and  using  more  eai'nestly  the  new 
and  higher  means  of  influence  at  our  command. 

Why  and  how  this  is  to  be  done,  it  will  be  the  purpose 
of  succeeding  chapters  to  show. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A   SURVEY  OF  THE  FIELD. 

What  is  the  net  result  ?  This  is  the  question  after  every 
battle.  It  is  equally  the  question  after  every  strugg-le  of 
whatever  sort,  and  especially  after  every  moral  or  religious 
contest,  or  as  there  comes  a  time  in  its  progress  for  a  pause 
and  a  survey  of  the  field.  Naturally,  therefore,  it  is  the 
question  that  comes  to  us  at  the  opening  of  our  second 
century. 

Theologically,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter,  the 
result  of  our  work  is  surprising.  Scarcely  less  surprising  is 
the  change  which,  out  of  a  handful  of  unlettered  ministers 
and  scattered  believers,  during  a  period  comparatively  so 
short,  and  against  hostile  influences  so  numerous  and  power- 
ful, has  made  us  in  standing  and  resources  what,  as  a 
church,  we  to-day  are.  But  what  of  moral  and  spiritual  re- 
sults? What  of  the  religious  effectiveness  of  our  methods 
and  motives  ?  Christ  came  a  quickening  spirit,  to  be  the 
world's  Saviour ;  and  Christianity,  as  his  instrument,  aims 
steadily  at  one  purpose,  viz.,  the  religious  awakening  and 
salvation  of  souls.  Every  church,  therefore,  that  is  really  a 
Church  of  Christ,  stands  invested  with  this  meaning ;  and 
so  far  as  it  fails  in  this  respect,  whatever  else  it  may  do,  it 
fails  in  its  final  design.  Our  net  resiilt  in  this  respect,  then, 
what  is  it  ? 

In  part,  it  is  a  result  every  way  creditable.  To  multi- 
tudes, Universalism  has  been  a  ministry  of  divine  awaken- 
ing and  power.  Oppressed',  many  of  them  despairing, 
amidst  the  gloom  and  discouragements  of  the  traditional 
creeds,  or  walking  in  the  darkness  of  unbelief,  or  liv- 
ing in  indifference  or  sin,  its  light  has  shone  upon  them, 
and  suddenly  they  have  found  themselves  in  a  new  world. 
The  thought  of  God  has  grown  beautiful  to  them.  Christ 
has  become  more  precious.     A  new  meaning  has  glorified 

41 


42  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

the  cross,  and  sent  home  the  pathos  of  its  appeals  to  their 
hearts.  Duty  has  become  more  attractive  ;  sin  more  repug- 
nant ;  prayer  a  privilege  and  a  strength  of  which  they  had 
never  dreamed;  religion  an  unspeakable  joy.  -'All  their 
lifetime  subject  to  bondage,"  trembling  at  the  thought  of 
death,  or  asking  with  anxious  and  moaning  hearts,  Are  our 
beloved  safe  ?  they  have  seen  heaven  opened,  as  it  were  a 
fresh  revelation,  disclosing  its  certain  reunions  and  the 
blessedness  of  God's  perfect  service,  and  have  been  attracted 
towards  God  and  the  redeemed  in  a  holier  life.  Others, 
born  in  the  atmosphere  of  Universalism  and  nurtured  in  its 
spirit,  have  illustrated  its  influence  as  an  element  of  Chris- 
tian culture,  as  they  have  knelt  from  their  youth  at  the  feet 
of  the  Saviour,  saying,  like  Samuel,  "  Speak,  Lord  ;  tliy  ser- 
vant heareth  thee,"  and  giving  themselves  to  the  work  of 
the  Church.  A  rich  record  Universalism  has  made  for  itself 
in  these  respects  ;  and  could  we  but  see  the  long  procession 
of  those  —  young,  middle-aged,  and  old  —  stretching  thi'ough 
the  past  hundred  years,  who  have  thus  been  reached  and 
benefited  by  it,  we  should  need  no  other  evidence  that  God 
is  in  it. 

But  while  this  is  one  side  —  and  a  very  gratifying  side  — 
of  the  case,  and  while  we  thus  have  many  reasons  to  be 
proud  of  Universalism  and  of  the  Universalist  Church,  and 
to  thank  God  for  what  they  have  done,  we  cannot  close  our 
eyes  to  the  fact  that,  religiously,  the  result  of  our  first  cen- 
tury's work  is  not  all  we  could  wish.  We  are  improving 
in  this  particular,  and  are  every  year  becoming  a  more  re- 
ligious people,  with  more  of  insight  and  spiritual  life.  But 
our  failure  at  this  point  is  none  the  less  the  one  great  occa- 
sion of  sorrow  to  many  of  our  ministers  and  the  more 
thoughtful  of  our  people,  as  they  look  over  the  field  and 
sum  up  the  outcome  of  our  labors  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  concealed 
that  many  are  anxiously  asking.  What  is  the  explanation  ? 
As  concerns  all  the  moralities,  respectabilities,  and  charities 
of  life,  Universalists  may  challenge  comparison  anywhere. 
The  benevolence  of  their  faith  broadens  their  sympathies, 
and  —  despite  some  mischievous  speculations  which  will  be 
duly  noticed  in  a  future  chapter  —  its  philosophy  of  moral 
obligation  and  award  cultivates  an  ethical   conscience,  so 


A  SURVEY   OF  THE  FIELD.  43 

that,  as  a  class,  they  are  conspicuous  in  these  regards. 
But  when  we  look  for  what  is  deeper  and  more  experimen- 
tal, to  an  extent  at  all  corresponding,  we  do  not  find  it. 

Looking  outside  what  we  have  been  accustomed  to  call 
our  denomination,  but  what  we  are  hereafter  to  designate  as 
our  Church,  we  discover  that  multitudes  who  say  they  be- 
lieve Universalism  are  identifying  themselves  with  other 
churches,  helping  to  support  what  they  profess  to  regard  as 
false  ;  and  still  worse,  if  possible,  other  like  multitudes  are 
content  to  have  no  religious  associations,  and  with  their 
children,  are  helping  to  swell  the  number  of  those  who  en- 
joy the  blessings  of  our  Christian  institutions,  but  do  noth- 
ing for  their  support. 

And  looking  within  the  lines  of  our  organization,  while 
we  can  truthfully  say  tliat  no  church  shows  a  higher  average 
of  people  upriglit  in  business,  kitid  to  the  poor,  every  way 
reputable,  it  cannot  be  said  that  devout  affections  and  a  re- 
ligious conscience  are  by  any  means  general  among  us.  We 
are  not  a  praying  people  —  that  is,  in  the  sense  in  which  this 
phrase  is  commonly  employed.  Praying  Universalists,  in 
this  sense,  there  are,  many  of  them  ;  how  many  there  are 
who  pray  in  the  voiceless  secrecy  of  their  communion  with 
God,  it  is  for  no  human  pen  to  assume  to  say.  But  the 
custom  of  family,  social,  or  slated  private  prayer  does  not, 
to  any  considerable  extent,  prevail  among  us,  because  there 
is  no  prevailing  sense  of  duty  in  these  directions  ;  and  how 
rare  it  is  to  find  those  in  our  congregations  who  can  be 
called  to  lead  in  public  prayer,  we  all  know.  We  have 
opinion  rather  than  faith  ;  more  nominal  assent  than  spirit- 
ual impulse  or  purpose.  Our  parishes  far  outnumber  our 
churches  ;  and  where  churches  exist,  they,  as  the  rule,  are 
very  small,  with  a  male  membership  lamentably  dispropoi'- 
tionate  to  that  of  the  congregations.  And  then  look  abroad: 
what  n»ean  the  so-called  Universalist  societies  —  alas,  so 
many  of  them  !  — dead  or  dormant  ?  What  mean  the  Univer- 
salist meeting-houses  sold,  or  rented,  or  standing  unused, 
given  up  to  decay,  monuments  to  our  dishonor?  And  last, 
but  not  least,  what  mean  the  fields  where  for  years  Univerr 
salism  —  or  what  has  borne  that  name  —  has  been  preached 
to  no  visible  effect  in  the   spiritual  vitality  of  the  people, 


44  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

and  only  to  result  in  a  sickly  and  struggling  life  for  the 
congregations,  or  in  final  wreck  and  dispersion  ?  For  two 
successive  years,  not  long  since,  I  spent  several  vacation 
Sundays  with  one  of  our  oldest  parishes  in  New  England, 
trying  to  make  the  dead  bones  live.  The  community  is 
a  thriving  one,  and  the  Universalists,  so-called,  have  all  the 
advantage  of  numbers,  wealth,  and  position.  But  having 
sold  their  house  of  worship,  the  most  of  them  first  allowed 
themselves  to  be  bodily  transferred  to  an  attempt  to  build 
up  a  Unitarian  society  ;  and  this  experiment  having  failed, 
they  have  since  sunk  into  comparative  apathy,  and  though 
having  occasional  preaching,  seemed,  the  last  I  heard  of 
them,  to  be  dying  of  spiritual  inanition.  Nor,  unfortunately, 
■is  this  a  solitary  case  —  so  far  as  the  substantive  facts  of 
apathy  and  inanition  are  concerned.  The  question  presses, 
then.  What  mean  these  things  ?  And  still  lurther,  how  are 
wo  to  account  fur  the  religious  deadness  and  the  indisposition 
to  do  anything  for  the  organization  of  parishes,  or  the  sup- 
port of  public  worship,  in  so  many  sections  where  a  nominal 
Universalism  widely  prevails  ?  There  are  counties  in  my 
native  state  (New  Hampshire),  where  what  is  called  Univer- 
salism may  almost  be  said  to  be  the  prevalent  form  of  re- 
ligious thought,  and  where  there  is  no  lack  of  pecuniary 
ability,  which  are  complete  wastes  as  regards  any  active 
Christian  effort,  save  as  an  occasional  Sunday's  preaching 
may  intermit  the  dearth.  Other  states  show  similar  dis- 
tricts. 

These  are  some  of  the  facts  we  are  compelled  to  contem- 
plate. They  must,  there  being  so  many  of  them,  have  some 
common  meaning.  What  is  it?  I  hesitate  to  say  it ;  but  I 
do  not  see  how  we  can  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  what  large 
numbers  of  people  hold  as  Universalism  is  thus  practically 
proved  to  lack  penetrative,  awakening,  mastering  power. 
Those  who  profess  it  are  in  no  way  possessed  by  it.  They 
are  not  melted  or  smitten,  are  not  "pricked  in  heart,"  or 
brought  to  their  knees  by  it.  It  is  of  the  head, — not  of 
the  deepest  or  inmost  lii'e.  It  begets  no  intensity  of  con- 
viction. It  fills  with  no  sense  of  religious  obligation.  It 
prostrates  with  no  consciousness  of  sin.  It  stirs  to  no  pen- 
itence. It  inspires  no  consecration.  In  a  word,  it  fails  to 
save  souls. 


A   SURVEY   OF  THE  FIELD.  45 

These  are  hard  things  for  me  to  say.  But,  unfortunately, 
they  are  indisputable  facts  —  the  reverse  side  of  the  net  re- 
sult of  our  first  hundred  years'  labor.  I  shall,  no  doubt,  be 
thought  by  some  of  my  brethren  injudicious,  —  perhaps  shall 
be  charged  by  others  with  overdrawing,  because  I  state 
them  so  unreservedly.  But  we  have  long  enough  talked 
about  them  in  private,  and  hinted  at  them  in  our  public  ut- 
terances. The  time  has  come  for  them  to  be  plainly  set 
forth,  and  for  the  probe  to  be  fearlessly  applied,  to  reveal 
their  cause  or  causes.  I  am  not  unaware,  of  course,  that 
statements  so  free  are  likely  to  be  used  to  our  disadvantage 
by  unscrupulous  sectarists,  who  will  give  no  attention,  for 
themselves  or  others,  to  the  explanations  which  are  to  fol- 
low ;  and  I  shall,  no  doubt,  be  represented  as  having  said 
that  Universal  ism  is  religiously  a  failure,  with  no  power  to 
save  souls.  But  whoever  so  represents  me,  directly  or  by 
implication,  will  deliberately  violate  the  ninth  commandment, 
and  allege  what  I  neither  say  nor  mean.  As  an  honest 
man,  I  could  no  longer  preach  nor  advocate  Universalism,  if 
I  could  either  make  or  believe  any  such  statement.  While, 
however,  i'ully  recognizing  this  liability  to  a  misrepresen- 
tation of  the  statement  which  I  really  make,  it  has  not 
seemed  to  me  any  reason  why  it  should  be  withheld  or 
qualified.  It  is  a  cowardly  friendship  for  any  truth  that 
fears  to  deal  honestly  with  its  hinderances,  or  to  point  out 
the  eiTors  and  mistakes  of  its  nominal  adherents,  lest  some 
enemy  should  be  dishonest  enough  to  pervert  or  misrepre- 
sent what  may  be  said.  The  only  way  to  treat  a  disease  is, 
first  of  all,  to  face  it  at  its  woi'sfc,  and  then  to  look  after  its 
remedy. 

Some  of  the  causes  of  the  state  of  things  I  have  glanced 
at  are  common  to  our  human  nature,  without  regard  to  sect 
or  creed.  They  are  such,  therefore,  as  are  atBicting  all 
churches,  more  or  less,  with  the  evils  complained  of  Every 
denomination  has  its  wayside  hearers,  its  stony  ground, 
lis  thorny  ground,  as  well  as  its  good  ground.  Regarding 
other  churches  at  a  distance  and  from  the  outside,  every- 
thing niii}'  appear  roseate  as  to  their  earnestness  and  spirit- 
uality ;  but  going  inside,  we  find  matters  quite  different, 
and  learn  that  they  have  their  lacks   and  their   failures  as 


46  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

well  as  we  :  a  statement,  as  I  once  made  it  in  substance 
from  the  pulpit,  emphatically  indorsed  by  an  £piscf)pal 
clergj'man  who  heard  it,  and  that  was  attested  with  equal 
emphasis,  some  years  ag'o,  by  a  New  England  minister  who 
lelt  the  Unitarians  to  join  the  Orthodox,  and  more  recently 
by  a  g'ood,  but  unstable  brother,  now  deceased,  who  went 
from  us  to  the  Swedenborgians,  expecting  to  lind  them  far 
more  spiritual  than  we,  but  in  a  year  or  two  returned, 
wofully  disappointed. 

The  whole  history  of  religious  truth  abounds  in  just  such 
two-sided  results  as  we  have  to  confess.  It  was  so  with 
the  ministry  even  of  the  apostles.  Not  only  were  there 
those  who  were  hearers  and  not  doers  of  the  word,  but 
there  were  those  who  heard  and  believed  only  to  misappre- 
hend, and  who,  failing  to  perceive  the  guiding- and  cleansing 
pui'pose  of  what  they  nominally  received,  were  made  rather 
worse  than  better.  The  Epistles  abound  with  references 
and  exhortations  which  show  that  there  were  such  in  all  the 
early  churches  :  those  to  whom  their  new  Christian  freedom 
meant  only  license,  and  who,  released  from  their  old  motives, 
and  failing  to  be  reached  by  the  new,  were  morally  lawless, 
with  no  positive  sense  of  obligation  anywhere.  As  the  result, 
in  part,  what  now  are  the  very  fields  in  which  Christianity 
was  first  preached?  Moral  wastes,  giving  no  sign  in  the 
life  of  the  people  of  the  divine  ministry  of  Christ,  or  of  the 
heroic  labors  of  apostles,  by  wliich  the  ground  has  si!ice 
been  hallowed  to  every  Christian  heart.  Does  it,  tlierelore, 
follow  that  Christianity  is  not  of  God  ?  And  following  it 
down,  has  Christianity  even  yet  altogether  ceased  to  be 
misapprehended,  or  to  be  held  in  unrighteousness  ?  Or,  would 
it  be  too  much  to  say  of  forms  of  Christianity  which  tiie  most 
*  evangelical '  will  admit  come  within  that  definition,  that 
what  large  numbers  thus  hold  to  be  Christianity  is  practically 
proved  unequal  to  the  work  of  saving  souls  ?  The  Reforma- 
tion furnished  evidence  to  the  same  efi'ect.  Numerous  ex- 
travagances of  doctrine  and  action  followed  the  emancipation 
of  religious  thought  from  its  long  thraldom.  Luther  himself 
seems  not  always  to  have  discriminated  very  closely  between 
non-allegiance  to  the  authority'  of  the  Church,  and  non-alle- 
giance to  the  authority  of  God's  Word  ;  and  as  he  contem- 


A   SURVEY  OF  THE  FIELD.  47 

plated  the  cr\icHties  and  fanaticisms  of  opinion,  and  the  moral 
looseness  and  lawlessness  growing-  out  of  the  causes  which 
be  had  been  the  means  of  setting  in  operation,  he  is  said  to 
have  wrung-  his  hands  at  times  in  his  disti'ess  and  mortifica- 
tion, almost  repenting  Avhat  he  had  done.  The  early  annals 
of  Methodism  g-ive  similar  witness.  Charles  Wesley  con- 
fesses himself  "  much  discourag-ed  by  the  disorderly  walk- 
ing of  some  who  have  given  the  adversary  occasion  to  blas- 
pheme," and  records  that  many  insisted  "that  a  part  of 
their  Christian  calling  is  a  liberty  from  obeying,  not  liberty 
to  obey  ;  "  and  John  Wesley  had  much  trouble  with  "  dis- 
oi'derly  walkers,"  of  some  of  whom  he  said  that  "the  spirit 
of  Ham,  if  not  of  Korah,  fully  possessed  them  ;  "  while  of 
others,  his  biographer  records  that  they  "fell  into  extrava- 
gant notions,  and  ways  of  expression,  more  proper  to  be 
heard  in  Bedlam  than  in  a  religious  society."  * 

These  are  but  examples  of  a  general  rule.  Every  move- 
ment towards  a  fresh  statement  of  truth,  while  attracting 
some  who  will  catch  its  spirit  and  be  helped  by  it  to  a 
better  life,  is  sure  to  attract  others  who  will  do  neither. 
Some,  more  or  less  correctly  perceiving  it  intellectually,  will 
hold  it  only  as  a  lifeless  theory,  a  lump  of  so  much  lead  in  the 
brain,  and  still  others,  totally  misapprehending  it,  will  accept 
it  only  as  an  occasion  of  license,  or  of  indifference  and 
neglect.  Nor  is  any  doctrine,  claiming  to  be  truth,  responsi- 
ble for  such  consequences,  except  as  they  are  the  clear  and 
legitimate  fruit  of  some  principle  essential  in  it.  Paul 
thanked  God  for  the  success  of  his  labors,  though  what  he 
preached  was  to  some  "  a  savor  of  death  unto  death." 
Preaching  what  he  believed  to  be  the  trutlj,  he  felt  that  he 
and  his  labors  were  approved  of  God,  tliough  some  did  hear 
only  to  disbelieve,  or  to  believe  in  a  misunderstanding  of 
the  new  faith,  and  thus  to  be  injured  rather  than  benefited. 
And  this  is  the  law  always.  "  What  though  some  were 
faithless  to  their  trust?  "  asked  Paul,  concerning  the  Jews. 
"  Sliiill  their  fliithlessness  destroy  the  faithfidness  of  God  ?  " 
(Rom.  iii.  3,  Conybeare  &  Ilowson's  Version.)  All  truth  is 
liable  to  perversion,  misconstruction,  abuse.     But  the  truth 

*  Whitehead's  Life  of  ^yesley,  pp.  128,  135,  4CG,  453. 


48  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

is  none  the  less  the  truth  on  account  of  either  of  these 
things,  and  is  to  be  preached,  notwithstanding  —  because  it 
is  the  truth,  and  because  it  is  sure,  in  time,  to  purge  itself  of 
all  such  concomitants. 

There  are,  moreover,  some  special  considerations  to  be 
taken  into  account  in  our  case,  aside  from  the  point  of  chief 
interest  in  it. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  how  much  this 
Universalist  movement  involves.  It  is  commonly  thought 
of  as  a  mere  change  of  opinion  concerning  a  single  doctrine. 
But  it  is  far  more  than  this.  It  is  a  breaking  up  of  all  the 
established  habits  of  religious  thinking.  Still  holding  on  to 
God  and  Christ  and  the  Bible,  it  is  a  new  theory  of  them 
all ;  a  reconstruction  of  the  whole  system  of  Christian 
theology,  substituting  new  principles  of  action,  appealing  to 
a  new  set  of  motives,  making  life,  as  to  its  foundation  and 
spirit,  a  totally  different  thing.  And  this  being  so,  consider 
how  much  ground  is  thus  covered,  and  how  many  are  the 
conditions,  alike  as  to  what  must  be  done  and  what  must  be 
undone,  which  have  to  be  fulfilled  before  Universalism  can 
become  thoroughly  appreciated,  and  so  be  fairly  put  into 
life.  No  ship,  leaving  its  anchorage,  at  once  gets  the  wind 
and  goes  straight  on  its  course.  It  always  drifts  more  or 
less  before  the  canvas  sets,  and  the  rudder  makes  itself  felt. 
So,  by  similar  necessities,  in  ever}'  moral  and  intellectual 
movement.  It  takes  time  for  new  principles  fully  to  assert 
themselves  ;  for  loosened  minds  to  get  wonted  to  freer  and 
broader  channels  ;  for  heart  and  conscience  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  higher  appeals,  and  thus  for  the  new  motives 
to  obtain  mastery. 

Then,  too,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  how,  from  the  first 
up  to  a  very  recent  period,  we  have  been  arguing  and  fight- 
ing, —  important  employments,  without  which  we  could  not 
have  leavened  and  modified  religious  opinion  as  we  have, 
but  not  employments  favorable  to  spiritual  culture,  or  to  a 
high  order  of  religious  life.  For  a  long  time,  on  this  account, 
what  passed  under  the  name  of  Universalism,  — Avhat  many 
preachers  exclusively  preached,  and  what  solely  filled  fur 
too  many  pews,  was  simply  anti-orthodoxy.  It  had  little 
or  no  sympathy  with    any    affirmative   faith,  and  as   little 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  FIELD.  49 

interest  in  any  positive  practical  Christian  aims.  It  cared 
only  to  deny  and  argue  and  pull  down,  and  began  to  lose 
whatever  life  or  zeal  it  had,  as  soon  as  labor  was  turned 
towards  personal  spiritual  experience,  or  definite  religious 
ends.  It  and  its  dying  out  among  us  furnish  the  sufficient 
explanation  for  many  of  the  so-called  Universalist  meeting- 
houses transferred,  or  surrendered  to  decay,  and  for  many 
of  the  nominal  Universalist  societies  dead  or  dormant. 

Another  thing  in  this  same  direction  :  Because  of  this 
antagonistic  and  controversial  attitude  to  which  we  were  for 
years  in  part  compelled,  and  which,  unfortunately  for  us, 
this  anti-orthodoxy  still  further  intensified,  it  is  to  be  con- 
sidered what  kind  of  material,  for  a  time,  with  much  that 
was  better,  drifted  into  formal  connection  with  us — some 
of  it  coarse,  some  of  it  corrupt,  all  of  it  eager  only  for  a 
game  of  fisticuifs  with  '  our  opposers,'  without  religious 
sensibility  or  purpose,  and,  wherever  it  touched,  poisonous 
and  destructive  to  every  best  interest  of  our  cause.  It  is 
the  penalty  of  all  new  movements  to  take  along  more  or  less 
such  material,  —  as  every  freshet  gathers  into  its  current  all 
kinds  of  lumber  and  rubbish  as  it  sweeps  along.  But  the 
rubbish  is  not  the  stream.  As  little  does  this  sort  of  material 
make  part  really  of  any  worthy  movement  which  may,  for  a 
season,  be  cursed  with  it.  But  it  is  a  curse,  none  the 
less ;  and  this  curse,  we,  like  others,  have  not  failed  to 
experience. 

Nor  is  this  all.  It  must  be  remembered  how  widely 
Universalism  has  been  compelled  to  do  its  work,  hindered 
and  neutralized  by  the  influence  and  false  education  of 
'  orthodoxy.'  "  I  know,"  said  a  little  four-years-old  son  of 
one  of  our  ministers,  as  his  Sunday  school  teacher  was  talk- 
ing with  his  class  about  bad  boys,  "  I  know  what  becomes 
of  bad  boys.  They  go  to  hell,  and  are  burned  up  forever." 
And  this  talk  from  a  child'  of  one  of  our  ministers  —  and  a 
minister  most  watchful  over  his  children  and  their  associa- 
tions, well  illustrates  how  the  whole  atmosphere  of  society 
has  been  pervaded  by  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of  the  tradi- 
tional creeds.  Universalism  has  not  been  permitted  to  as- 
sert itself  as  an  element  of  Christian  nurture  uncontaminated 
by  these  creeds,  even  in  our  own  homes.  What  has  been 
4 


1 


50  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

the  consequence  ?  With  numerous  other  mischievous  im- 
pressions, the  public  mind  has  been  saturated  with  the  idea 
that  Avore  it  not  for  hell,  and  our  exposure  to  endless  woe, 
there  would  be  no  good  reason  why  we  should  be  religious, 
or  at  all  concerned  in  religious  work.  Of  course,  the  fear 
of  hell  being  removed,  people  so  trained  have  had  little  or 
no  conception  of  any  other  motive  sufficient  to  control 
them.  What  wonder,  then,  that  Universalism  has  not  been 
so  successful  as,  under  other  circumstances,  it  might  have 
been  in  lifting  the  popular  mind  up  to  the  level  of  its  ap- 
peals, and  so  in  putting  its  own  spirit  and  motives  into 
those  theoretically  converted  to  its  doctrines  ?  And  what 
have  we,  really,  in  much  of  the  neglect  and  irreligion  or- 
dinarily charged  to  the  account  of  Universalism,  but  the 
direct  harvest  of  '  orthodox  '  training,  or  of  the  principles 
which  it  has  sown  and  tilled  ?  Nor  is  it  a  fact  to  pass 
without  mention  here,  that  the  Universalism  of  large  num- 
bers who  have  dishonored  our  name  has  been  wholly  learned 
from  the  slanders  of  '  evangelical '  pulj)its.  Such  pulpits, 
falsely  representing  the  teachings  of  Universalism  to  be  what 
they  never  were,  have  sent  away  the  profane  and  the  vicious 
with  the  impression  that  Universalism  is  favorable  to  their 
low  and  vicious  life,  and  they  have  said.  If  this  is  Univer- 
salism, then  we  are  Universalists  ;  and  we  have,  had  to 
bear  the  odium  of  their  professed  friendship,  though  they 
knew  no  more  of  Universalism  than  Simon  the  sorcerer 
knew  of  the  Gospel,  and  were  without  even  so  much  of 
right  to  bear  its  name  as  he  had  to  call  himself  a  Christain. 
Still  further  :  Until  within  a  few  years,  comparatively, 
we  have  been  without  any  system  of  religious  culture  and 
work.  In  the  reaction  of  our  denominational  fathers  from 
the  doctrines^  they  renounced,  there  was,  naturally,  —  almost 
unavoidably,  —  a  quite  general  reaction  from  all  existing  re- 
ligious methods.  Prayer-meetings,  the  church,  the  Sunday 
school,  tracts,  missionary  societies,  family  prayer,  a  formal 
profession  of  religion,  everything  but  the  simple  service 
of  preaching,  was,  to  a  wide  extent,  opposed,  or,  if  not  op- 
posed, ridiculed  or  neglected,  as  savoring  of  cant,  fanati- 
cism, or  priestcraft.  The  pendulum  had  begun  to  return  from 
this  mischievous  reaction  just  before  I  entered  the  ministry  ; 


A   SUEVEY   OP    THE    FIELD.  51 

but  its  consequences  long  continued,  and  even  now  have  not 
wholly  ceased.  If  there  are  to  be  religious  results,  there 
must  necessarily  be  some  system  of  means  to  secure  them. 
So  long  lacking  any  such  system,  then,  and  not  simply  lack- 
ing, but  to  a  large  extent  deriding  and  fighting  against  it, 
how  could  it  be  but  that  the  consequences  should  be  re- 
ligiously disastrous  to  us  ? 

Particularly  must  it  be  taken  into  account,  in  this  connec- 
tion, to  how  small  an  extent  we  have  had  any  thorough  and 
systematic  training  of  our  children,  even  in  the  doctrines  of 
the  Bible  as  we  understand  them,  —  much  less  with  refer- 
ence to  religious  obligation  and  experience,  and  a  distinctively 
religious  life.  Some  of  them,  from  their  very  infancy,  have 
been  carefully  and  prayerfully  educated  in  Universalism, 
not  only  theoretically,  but  as  a  religious  power  :  and  how 
many  such  have  anywhere  failed  to  be  devout,  earnest,  con- 
secrated men  and  women  ?  But  as  the  rule,  has  it  not 
been  thought  sufficient  that  children  growing  up  in  our 
homes  should  be  trained  in  a  general  way  to  respect  God 
and  the  Bible  and  the  Sabbath,  and  to  be  kind,  honest,  truth- 
ful, morally  upright,  and  when  this  has  been  done,  have 
they  not  been  left  to  themselves  as  to  anything  else  ?  And 
though  we  have  had  Sabbath  schools,  and  have  come  of  late 
years,  almost  universally,  to  institute  them,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  wherever  we  have  had  established  congregations,  has 
it  not  been  equally  the  rule,  up  to  a  very  recent  period, 
even  if  it  is  not  the  fact  quite  so  widely  now,  that  they 
have  taught  Jewish  history,  Scripture  biography  and  ge- 
ography, with  some  occasional  smattering  of  doctrine, 
and  some  talk  about  being  good,  leaving  tlie  more  vital  and 
spiritual  applications  of  our  truth  to  the  conscience  and  the 
heart  with  comparatively  little  attention  ?  Is  it,  then,  very 
strange  that  such  sowing  has  not  resulted  in  the  best  r6- 
ligious  harvests  ? 

All  these  things  have  unquestionably  had  their  impor- 
tance in  our  case,  and  they  severally  serve  to  explain,  in 
part,  the  failure  in  purely  religious  results  which  we  are  now 
noting.  But  the  consideration  which,  as  I  believe,  alone 
goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  explains,  as  none  of  these 
does,  what  is  saddest  and  most  perplexing  in  this  state  of 


52  OUE   NEW   DEPARTUKE. 

things,  is  yet  to  be  mentioned.  It  is,  that  there  has  been 
among-  us  a  wide-spread  lack  of  suflSciently  serious  views 
of  irreligiou  and  sin  as  related  to  God  and  the  inmost  life  of 
souls  —  of  which  a  chapter  further  on  will  duly  treat.  As 
the  consequence,  all  the  effects  of  sin  have,  to  a  similar  ex- 
tent, been  supposed  to  end  with  the  body,  and  Universalism 
has  thus  been  apprehended  as  simply  a  proclamation  that  all 
souls,  at  death,  however  they  may  have  lived,  pass  at  once  to 
certain  felicity,  without  regard  to  any  conditions  of  faith,  char- 
acter, or  effort  here. 

Under  any  circumstances,  it  was  inevitable,  as  was  just 
now  intimated,  considering  in  what  ideas  the  people  had  so 
long  been  educated,  that  the  announcement  that  there  is  no 
endless  hell  should  seem  to  some  minds  to  remove  all  imper- 
ative reason  for  religious  living,  however  conditioned  or 
qualified  salvation  might  have  been.  In  a  sense,  motives 
are  the  nerves  of  life  ;  and  it  is  obvious  that,  under  no  cir- 
cumstances, could  it  be  a  light  thing,  or  a  task  wholly  unat- 
tended with  danger,  to  take  out  from  our  physical  frames 
one  set  of  nerves  and  substitute  another.  A  child  brutal- 
ized under  a  regime  of  kicks  and  blows  does  not  at  once  and 
readily  appreciate  the  force  of  purely  moral  influence.  At 
the  best,  therefore,  it  was  inevitable  that  large  numbers,  be- 
cause of  their  false  and  pernicious  '  orthodox  '  education,  on 
becoming  convinced  by  Universalist  argument  to  the  nega- 
tive extent  of  believing  that  there  is  no  endless  woe  to  be 
afraid  of,  should  feel  that  the  strain  of  religious  motive  was 
loosened,  and  that  they  were  somewhat  more  at  liberty,  if 
they  so  pleased,  to  take  things  easily,  and  to  give  only  so 
much  attention  to  religion  as  they  might  find  convenient,  or 
as  might  seem  to  them  needful  to  be  respectable.  There 
could  not  be  such  a  transition  without  something  of  immedi- 
ate moral  harm.  But  when  it  came  to  be  so  almost  univer- 
sally understood  that  Universalism  means  not  simply  that 
there  is  no  endless  punishment,  but  that  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  for  even  the  most  sinful  to  be  anxious  about  on  the 
other  side  of  death, — that  live  as  negligently,  or  as 
wickedly,  as  one  may  here,  it  makes  no  difiercnce  as  to  his 
immediate  felicity  when  he  dies,  it  is  not  surprising  —  at 
least,  to  luc  —  that  the  effect  should   be,  religiously^,  very 


A    SURVEY   OF   THE   FIELD.  53 

unfavorable,  ancl  that  we   should  see  what  we  have  seen, 
and  still  do  see,  of  listlessness  and  unconcern. 

Those  there  have  been,  indeed,  holding  this  doctrine,  who 
have  been  among'  the  saintliest  and  most  consecrated  souls 
that  ever  blessed  the  world  with  their  presence  — just  as 
there  have  been  such  among-  the  believers  of  the  terrible 
doctrines  of  '  orthodoxy.'  But  these  last  are  no  examples 
of  what  such  doctrines  are  fitted  to  make  their  believers,  — 
only  examples  of  tvhat  those  believing-  these  doctrines,  but 
feeding-  upon  the  truth  associated  with  them,  may  become 
in  spite  of  them  —  as  even  in  the  most  poisonous  flower  the 
bee  finds  that  which  it  transmutes  into  honey.  And  for 
much  the  same  reason,  never  thinking  of  reward  or  punish- 
ment,—  only  living  in  habitual  communion  with  the  best 
and  sweetest  things  in  the  Gospel,  these  saintly  and  conse- 
crated souls  among  the  disciples  of  this  theory  which 
confines  all  the  peril  of  sin  to  this  world,  and  which  puts 
even  the  most  profane  and  unbelieving  directly  into  heaven 
at  the  moment  of  death,  in  no  way  illustrate  the  natural 
tendency  of  such  a  belief,  —  only  illustrate  what  power  there 
is  in  strong  religious  instincts,  and  a  positive  sympathy 
with  God  and  the  Saviour,  to  neutralize  even  very  mischiev- 
ous error,  and  to  come  to  beautiful  spiritual  flower  and  fruit 
in  spite  of  it. 

If  we  are  to  test  the  real  influence  practically  of  such  a 
theory,  we  must  look  to  those  on  quite  another  moral  level. 
And  taking  the  world  as  it  is,  we  cannot  convince  men  that 
there  is  actually  no  peril  in  sin  beyond  this  life,  and  thai 
there  are  no  conditions  of  salvation  there  to  be  here 
fulfilled,  —  that  no  matter  how  badly  they  live,  or  what 
they  neglect,  they  will  certainly  slough  off  all  unpleasant 
consequences  of  their  misconduct  with  the  body  the  instant 
they  die,  and  go  straight  to  glory,  faring  just  as  well  as  though 
they  had  lived  the  most  self-denying  and  Christian  life,  with- 
out paralyzing  their  spiritual  concern,  and  leaving  them  to 
be  swayed  as  appetite,  or  the  supposed  interests  or  pleas- 
ures of  this  world,  may  suggest.  Even  those  who  thiidc 
somewhat  of  their  highest  obligations  are  prone  to  put  off 
any  decided  step  religiously  till  circumstances '  shall  be 
somehow  more  favorable,   or  till  sometime  when,  as  they 


54  OUR  NEW  DEPAETUEE. 

think,  it  will  be  easier  for  them  to  make  the  effort  or  the 
sacrifices  required.  Satisfy  even  them,  therefore,  that  they 
have  only  to  wait  till  they  die,  to  find  themselves  '  all 
right '  without  any  efibrt  on  their  part,  and,  in  many  cases 
of  every  hundred,  they  will  say,  Why  trouble  ourselves 
about  what  is  then  so  certainly  to  take  care  of  itself  ?  And, 
if  even  such  will  be  so  affected,  how  much  more  those  who 
seldom  give  a  moment's  thought  to  their  religious  duties, 
save  as  they  occasionally  think  what  they  are  hei'eafter 
likely  to  suffer  on  account  of  their  neglect  !* 

It  is. true  that  every  day  is  a  day  of  reckoning,  under  the 
moral  government  of  God,  and  that  whoever  chooses  a  life 
of  worldliuess  or  sin  is  making  a  great  mistake,  every  day 
attested  in  his  or  her  experience  as  a  soul.  It  is  no  less 
true  that  every  day  of  a  saintly  life  is  its  own  sufficient 
compensation,  and  that  one  who  has  attained  the  elevation 
of  such  a  life  never  stops  to  think  what  he  or  she  is  to  get 
for  it  hereafter.  "The  backslider  in  heart  shall  be  filled 
with  his  own  waj's ;  and  a  good  man  shall  be  satisfied  from 
himself."  And,  these  things  being  so,  it  is  very  easy  to 
say  what  should  be,  and  how  people  ought  to  live  with  no 
thought  of  consequences  after  death,  certain  that  every 
day's  living  pays  for  itself  But,  as  the  fact,  people  do  not 
so  live  without  regard  to  consequences.  As  the  fact,  the 
less  one  has  of  spiritual  impulse  and  culture,  the  more  he 
depends  upon  consequences  to  determine  his  choice  towards 
good.  As  the  fact,  if  men  are  to  be  up  and  doing,  they 
must  feel  that  they  have  something  at  stake.  So  it  ever 
has  been,  as  all  experience  testifies ;  and  so,  by  every  law 
or  theory  of  motive  upon  which  men  are  most  accustomed 
to  act,  it  ever  must  be.  Even  with  reference  to  this  world, 
as  people  average,  they  will  not  work  unless  some  necessity 
is  laid  upon  them  ;  and,  however  superior  to  such  stimulus 
some  of  rare  constitution,  or  of  a  high  order  of  spiritual 
development,  may  be,  the  mass  of  mankind,  tempted  and 
dragged  down  as  they  are  by  the  immediate  solicitations  of 
material  and  sensual  appeals,  will  not,  in  affairs  of  the  soul, 
rise  so  fqr  above  the  ordinary  plane  of  motive  as  to  deny 
themselves,  and  renounce  their  easy  indulgence  or  uncon- 
cern, and  put  themselves  to  struggle  and  effort  towards  a 


A  SURVEY  OP  THE  FIELD.  55 

better  life,  except  as  the  spur  of  consequences  presses  into 
them,  and  they  are  compelled  to  feel  that,  hereafter  and 
always,  as  here,  what  they  shall  be  must  depend,  under 
God,  wholly  upon  themselves,  and  depend  there,  for  a 
period  no  one  can  say  how  long,  upon  what  they  are  and 
do  here. 

Had  ihevQ  been  any  room  for  doubt  on  this  point  before, 
the  result  of  our  experience  would  render  any  further  doubt 
impossible.  The  several  considerations  recited  by  way  of 
explaining-  the  absence  of  the  religious  results  we  fain  would 
see,  but  do  not,  at  the  close  of  our  first  hundred  years,  are, 
as  has  been  said,  important  in  their  place  ;  and  each  of  them 
does  something  —  some  of  them  do  a  great  deal  —  to  solve 
the  problem  presented  us.  But  when  we  have  made  the 
most  possible  out  of  the  explanations  thus  furnished,  there 
still  remains  much  in  our  condition  that  is  not  touched  ;  and 
this,  as  a  large  majority  of  our  most  thoughtful  ministers  and 
people  have  unquestionably  come  to  believe,  is  to  be  directly 
charged  to  the  account  of  the  idea  of  certain  immediate 
salvation  at  death  without  regard  to  conduct  or  character. 
Not  that  it  is  meant  to  say  that  the  absence  of  any  such 
idea  would  have  saved  us  from  all  which  we  now  have  to 
deprecate.  Not  by  any  means  that  it  is  designed  even  to 
intimate  that  the  idea  of  the  continuity  of  character,  and 
of  responsibility  for  it,  beyond  death,  necessarily  insures  re- 
ligious life.  We  have  all  known  persons  and  congregations 
theoretically  committed  to  this  doctrine,  who  were  very  far 
from  being  patterns  of  religious  devotion,  or  even  of  moral 
uprightness.  As  no  opinion,  however  false,  Avill  make  all 
who  avow  it  bad,  so  neither  will  any  opinion,  however  true, 
spiritually  vitalize  all  who  hold  it.  The  question  in  respect 
to  all  moral  or  religious  ideas  is,  first,  as  to  their  truth,  and 
then  as  to  their  general  tendency,  their  natural  and  legiti- 
mate results.  And  what  it  is  intended  here  to  say  is  only 
this  —  that  the  natural  tendency  of  the  idea  referred  to  has 
been  to  spiritual  lethargy  and  unconcern,  and  that,  had 
more  philosophical  and  scriptural  convictions  concerning 
sin  and  its  consequences  prevailed  instead  of  it,  results  more 
favorable  would  doubtless  now  be  seen.  This  idea,  it  is 
meant  to  say,  has  taken  away  the  stimulus  of  necessity  as  a 


56  OUE  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

motive  to  religious  interest  or  effort.  It  has  fostered  tbe 
impression  that  such  interest  or  effort  is  entirely  a  matter  at 
our  private  option,  since  it  has  taught  those  accepting  it 
that,  if  they  preferred  to  serve  the  world,  or  sin,  willing  to 
take  the  consequences  here,  they  would  be  just  as  well  off 
at  death.  It  has  thus  begotten  a  false  sense  of  security. 
It  has  been  an  opiate,  lulling  to  slumber  a  religious  con- 
science. It  has  enervated  religious  force ;  weakened  the 
sense  of  religious  responsibility ;  relaxed  the  strenuousness 
of  religious  inducement ;  undermined  religious  life  ;  and  — 
mourning,  as  we  have  such  occasion  to  mourn,  over  Univer- 
salist  societies  once  thriving  (as  it  was  thought),  now 
apathetic  or  dead,  —  over  Universalist  meeting-houses  sold, 
rented,  or  going  to  decay,  —  over  nominal  Universalist  be- 
lievers, religiously  sluggish  and  unconcerned, — over  all  that 
tells  religiously  to  the  dishonor  of  our  Church,  and  seems 
to  attest  the  failure  of  Universalism  itself  as  a  religious 
power,  —  we  are  unmistakably  pointed  to  this  idea  as  the 
most  fatal  and  effective  among  tl>e  causes  which  have 
wrought  to  produce  this  state  of  things.  AH  our  waste  and 
desolate  fields,  so  far  as  I  knoiv,  are  fields  where  this  idea  has 
reigned.  In  a  word,  the  doctrine  of  a  fixed  and  uncondi- 
tional salvation,  certain  for  all  at  death,  has  had  a  fair  trial 
in  our  history,  and  the  verdict  is,  Tekel.  It  has  been 
weighed  in  the  balances,  and  found  wanting. 

I  hold  in  high  respect  —  some  of  them,  in  warm  and  af- 
fectionate regard —  the  brethren  who  are  still  supposed  to 
entertain  this  doctrine.  In  speaking  of  it,  I  would  not 
even  in  seeming  violate  any  demand  of  love  or  courtesy 
towards  them.  But  I  have  no  words  to  express  my  profound 
and  growing  conviction  as  to  what  this  theory  has  been  as 
a  mischievous  element  in  the  life  of  our  Church.  Nor  can  I 
sufficiently  put  into  language  the  intensity  of  my  conviction 
that,  while  the  largest  liberty  of  thought  and  speech  is  to 
be  maintained,  we  owe  it  to  ourselves,  and  all  that  is  at 
stake  in  the  salvation  of  souls,  to  have  it  henceforth  every- 
where understood  that  Universalism  means,  and  that  the  Uni- 
versalist Church  stands  for,  no  such  thing. 

Nor  am  I  alone  in  this  conviction.  With  different  degrees 
of  intensity,  it  has  come  to  be  the  prevailing  conviction 


'A  SURVEY  OF   THE   FIELD.  57 

among  us.  Should  it  be  so  much  as  a  question,  then, 
what  we  will  do  ?  Surveying  the  field,  and  summing  up 
the  net  I'esult  religiously  of  our  first  century,  are  we  not 
imperatively  called  to  a  new  departure,  as  we  are  entering 
upon  another  stage  in  our  history?  —  a  departure  that  will 
duly  emphasize  our  now  general  conviction  that  salvation  is 
offered,  not  secured,  except  as  each  soul  complies  with  the 
conditions  on  which  God  has  planned  it  for  His  children,  and 
thus  a  departure  that  will  henceforth  make  Universalism  a 
call  to  activity,  under  the  load  of  Christ,  in  co-operation  with 
God,  and  not  a  proclamation  of  results  to  be  somehow 
wrought  out  by  Christ,  because  unconditionally  decreed  by 
God,  with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do. 

I  am  sure  I  cannot  err  in  saying  that  there  is  no  thought- 
ful Universalist  who  would  not  be  unspeakably  saddened  if, 
forecasting  the  horoscope  of  the  next  hundred  years,  he 
should  see  only  a  similar  net  result  as  we  now  have  to  con- 
template. Thank  God,  he  would  exclaim,  for  any  good  our 
Church  may  have  done,  but,  alas  !  we  do  not  touch  the 
vital  spot ;  the  great  work  to  which  every  church  of  Christ 
is  appointed  in  his  behalf  is  left  undone.  Shall  we  hesitate, 
then,  to  change  the  administration  of  the  truth  given  us,  so 
as  to  touch  this  vital  spot,  and  do  Christ's  great  work  ?  Our 
truth  remains  unchallenged.  Everything  proclaims  it  true  ; 
and  there  is  no  occasion  to  doubt  or  to  distrust  it.  We 
have  only  erred  in  administering  it.  The  sublime  anthem 
of  a  complete  salvation,  written  of  God,  is  still  to  be  clianted 
amidst  the  discords  of  sin  and  sorrow  in  our  world,  and  we 
.  are  to  lead  the  chorus.  It  is  only  required  that  we  pitch  it 
to  another  key-note.  Never  before,  though  our  net  result 
is  not  all  we  ought  to  witness,  have  we  had  so  much  reason 
as  now  to  thank  God  and  take  courage.  All  thought,  all 
philosophy,  all  theology,  all  the  best  life  of  the  time,  is  tend- 
ing in  our  direction.  Considering  ourselves,  moreover,  not 
only  ai'o  we  greatly  increased  in  numbers :  we  are  more 
compact,  better  organized,  more  definite  in  aim,  better 
equipped  in  means,  Aviser  and  more  resolute  in  methods 
than  ever  before  ;  and,  better  than  all  the  rest,  we  are 
ripening  morally,  and  deepening  and  becoming  more  alive 
spiritually.     It  is  only  needed  that,  committing  ourselves 


58  OUR  NEW  DEPARTUEE. 

to  this  New  Departure,  we  go  forward,  mighty  in  the  power 
of  our  great  truth  as  thus  better  administered,  and  working 
so  as  to  secure  God's  blessing,  in  order  that  we  may  effec- 
tually retrieve  any  mistakes  or  omissions  of  the  past,  and  be 
the  conquering  and  redeeming  Church  God  is  inviting  us  to 
become. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   GOODNESS   OF  GOD. 

The  first  condition  of  a  religious  life  is  a  right  sense  of 
God,  and  an  awakening  of  the  heart  towards  Him ;  and  in 
its  very  essence,  Universalisin  presents  God  in  such  aspects 
and  relations  as  cannot  fail  to  touch  any  heart,  if  fittingly 
enforced  and  duly  reflected  upon.  In  respect  to  God,  there- 
fore, we  need  to  take  no  new  departure  except — 1.  Per- 
haps, to  make  our  exposition  of  Him  less  exclusively  intel- 
lectual, for  purposes  of  mere  argument,  and  more  directly 
and  personally  an  appeal  to  conscience  and  the  aflFections, 
as  a  means  of  spiritual  influence  ;  and,  especially,  2.  To  dis- 
criminate more  closely  in  our  ideas  of  His  goodness,  so  as 
more  distinctly  to  include  the  fact  of  His  severity  as  well  as 
His  kindness.  What  is  implied  in  the  first  of  these  specifi- 
cations is  being  so  anticipated  in  the  current  drift  of  our 
church-life,  and  will,  besides,  in  so  many  ways  run  through 
these  pages,  that  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  dwell  upon  it ; 
but  the  second  is  on  every  account  so  important  as  to  be  en- 
titled to  a  prominent  place  in  this  general  discussion. 

Reading  the  report  of  a  lecture  on  Abyssinia,*  some  time 
ago,  I  was  much  struck  with  the  following  sentences,  and 
particularly  with  the  statements  here  italicized  :  "  The  Abys- 
sinians,  though  zealous  observers  of  fast-days,  which  make 
up  nearly  one  third  of  the  year,  are  nevertheless  a  very  in- 
temperate people,  and  many  diseases  are  to  be  attributed 
solely  to  their  excesses.  The  jjraciical  doctrines  which  they 
derive  from  Christianity  seem  to  be  that  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
mercy  of  the  Almighty,  and  that,  as  life  is  short  and  pleasure 
fleeting,  it  is  desirable  to  seize  every  opportunity  for  enjoyment. 
Acting  on  this  plausible  theory,  they  eat  more  raw  meat,  driuk 
more  mead,  or  small  beer,  commit  more  breaches  of  the  moral 

*  B7  E.  Hepple  Hall,  before  the  Traveller's  Club,  New  York  City. 

59 


60  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

law,  and  particularly  of  the  seventli  commandment,  than  any- 
other  Christians,  in  Christendom  or  out  of  it."  The  lecturer 
was  represented  to  be  an  Abyssinian  traveller  ;  and  assum- 
ing that  the  statements  are  reliable,  they  sig-nally  illustrate 
how  the  doctrine  of  God's  illimitable  mercy  may  be  so 
unqualifiedly,  and  therefore  falsely,  held  as  to  become  an  oc- 
casion of  license  rather  than  a  motive  to  holiness.  Our 
great  doctrine  of  God's  goodness  has  probably  never  been 
subject  to  any  such  extreme  perversion  ;  but  is  it  too  much 
to  say  that  there  have  been  approaches  to  some  such  misap- 
prehension of  it  ? 

One  of  the  seed-errors  of  '  orthodoxy  '  is,  that  it  so  tears 
the  justice  of  God  from  its  relations,  and  so  exaggerates  its 
proportions  and  demands,  as  to  make  it  an  infinite  malignity  ; 
and  in  the  earnestness  of  our  protest  against  this,  we  have 
almost  unconsciously  been  carried  towards  the  other  ex- 
treme. As  the  result,  we  have, — not  exaggerated  God's 
love,  for  infinite  Love  cannot  be  exaggerated,  but  have, 
to  some  extent,  failed  to  keep  duly  in  mind  its  qualifying 
attributes  and  the  various  methods  it  employs.  A  some- 
what too  rose-colored  and  sentimental  view  of  God's  char- 
acter has  been  the  consequence  —  as  if  His  goodness  were 
only  an  easy  and  infinite  good-nature,  a  boundless  and  all- 
approving  complacency,  overlooking  all  distinctions  of  char- 
acter, —  an  invincible  and  invariable  indulgence,  too  tender 
to  be  rigorous,  too  loving  to  be  stern  and  terrible.  To  this, 
rather  than  to  any  mere  emphasis  we  have  given  to  God's 
love,  is  due,  it  is  believed,  the  wide-spread  impressions  — 
1.  That,  as  distinguished  authority  has  recently  expressed 
it,  Universalism  is  simply  "  an  outgrowth  of  the  diseased 
sentimentalism  of  the  period,"  —  "the  exaggeration,  or, 
perhaps,  the  perversion  of  philanthropy,"  sure,  "if  severely 
left  alone,"  to  "  run  to  seed  after  a  little,"  as  this  "  diseased 
sentimentalism "  shall  be  cured  by  the  access  of  a  little 
more  common  sense  ;  and  2.  That  Universalism  is  of  course 
impeached,  and  Universalists  necessarily  unhorsed,  if  God's 
punitive  justice  is  proved,  or  if  anything  but  this  easy  and 
infinite  good-nature  is  attributed  to  Him. 

All  such  impressions,  whether  existing  as  one-sided  con- 
ceptions of  the  truth,  among  ourselves,  or  as  grounds  of  ob- 


THE   GOODNESS   OF  GOD.  •        61 

joction  ag-ainst  us,  among-  others,  we  must,  if  we  are  to 
administer  the  Gospel  more  effectively  for  religious  ends, 
studiously  correct,  careful  in  the  mean  time  to  give  no  fur- 
tlier  justilication  for  them.  Dr.  Ballou,  of  blessed  memory, 
left  a  brief  paper  on  this  topic,  not  very  familiar,  I  imagine, 
even  to  Universalist  readers,  but  one  of  the  best  products  of 
his  wise  and  thoughtful  mind.  Let  me  invoke  the  authority 
of  his  name,  and  the  vigor  and  discrimination  of  his  pen, 
to  set  forth,  so  much  better  than  I  can,  the  view  of  the  sub- 
ject which  should  hereafter  give  character  to  our  thinking 
and  labor.  He  first  deals  briefly  with  the  pliilosophy  of 
criminal  reform  ;  and  though  it  does  not  directly  treat  of  the 
love  of  God,  what  he  thus  writes  serves  so  important  a  pur- 
pose as  an  introduction  to  what  follows,  that  it  should  not 
be  omitted.     He  says,  — 

"  It  appears  to  us  that  any  general  system  of  measures  for  the  re- 
form of  the  vicious,  or  for  the  correction  of  the   criminal,  must   prove 
futile  in  the  end,  unless  it  provide  for  the  use  of  sharp,  and  sometimes 
terrible,  severity.     If  we  attempt  to  get  wholly  rid  of  this  unwelcome 
agent  in  the  work  of  human  discipline,  and  rely  exclusively  on  forbear- 
ance, inoffensive  gentleness,  and  the  attraction  of  sympathy,  to  effect 
the  purpose,  we  shall  find  that  they  soon  lose  their  jjower  ;  when  taken 
thus  alone,  they  will  at  length  exert  even  an  injurious,  because  enerva- 
ting,^ influence  on  the  public.     Human  nature  is  such  that,  in  order  to 
acquire  consistency  and  strength,  it  needs  a  great  amount  of  hardship 
mingled  in  with   its  more   pleasant  experiences;  just  as  we  need  the 
immense  pressure   of  the  atmosphere  to  stimulate   the  functions   of 
animal  life,  or  as  the  universal  order   of  physical  nature  depends  on 
the  nice  adjustment  of  repulsion  and  attraction.     How  would   it  do  to 
dispense  with  either  of  these  ?     In  the  existing  state  of  human  society, 
together  with  the  arrangements  of  Divine  Providence,  there  are  indeed 
many_  instances  of  a  wonderful  reform  of  individuals  effected  by  the 
exhibition  of  gentle  persuasion  alone  ;  but,  even  in  these  instances,  it 
is  because  there  is  already  furnished  a  dark  background  of  suffering, 
or  of  conscious  danger,  to  contribute  its  part  towards  the  result,  and  to 
give   the  gentler  element  a  chance  to  penetrate   the  heart.     Shut  up 
the  criminal  in  a  gloomy  prison,  under  the  ban  of  the  world,  or  let  him 
anxiously  fear  this  doom  ;  let  the  general  order  of  things  be  such  that 
the  vicious  man  shall  feel  that  he  is  under  the  stern  censure  of  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lives,  that  he  has  by  his  own  fault  lost  the  respect 
and  fellowship  for  which  his  social  nature  yearns,  that  he  has  wickedly 
ruined  his  health  or  his  business  ;  or  let  him  be  harassed  by  apprehen- 
sions of  these  results  ;  let  the  sinner  be  oppressed  with  guilt  and  with 
the  consciousness  of  self-desolation;  and  then  the  voice  of  individual 
sympathy  and  encouragement  may  indeed  come  home  to  him  with  a  di- 


62  OUE  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

vine  power,  because  his  previous  discipline,  together  with  his  present 
environment,  has  driven  him  to  appreciate  it.  But  how,  if  he  had 
never  been  subjected  to  such  unwelcome  discipline  ?  Suppose  that  a 
mistaken  philanthrophy  were  to  bring  about  such  a  state  of  things,  that 
criminality  should  at  once  secure  to  the  offender,  not  the  ban  of  the 
world,  nor  the  repelling  censure  of  society,  but  universal  sympathy, 
a  tender,  patronizing  assiduity,  and  that  all  sin  were  to  be  treated  simply 
as  a  misfortune,  till  the  very  sense  of  guilt  should  thus  be  allayed  as 
far  as  possible  in  the  sinner's  own  petted  conscience  ;  suppose  that  the 
element  of  stern  penal  justice  should  be  exorcised  from  society,  and  the 
work  of  human  discipline  be  carried  on,  from  first  to  last,  by  soothing 
processes  only  ;  it  is  easy  to  see  that,  in  this  case,  the  gentleness  would 
lose  all  its  efficacy.  There  would  need  a  background  of  severity  as 
its  complement. 

"  It  may  be  well  to  consider  the  relations  of  the  subject  to  the  doc- 
trine, that  the  spirit,  in  which  God  made  and  governs  the  world,  is  in- 
finite goodness,  and  that  the  manifestation  of  this  goodness  is  the 
means  recognized  by  the  Gospel  for  reconciling  mankind  to  their  Maker. 
Should  it  be  asked,  whether  the  principles  we  have  illustrated  be  not 
inconsistent  with  this  doctrine,  we  should  answer,  Yes,  if  the  goodness 
of  God  were  simply  complacency,  or  were  it  never  exhibited  under  any 
other  form  than  that  of  tenderness.  Here  is  a  point  on  which,  we 
think,  there  is  want  of  discrimination,  with  many,  in  assuming  their 
premises.  They  seem  to  forget  the  other  forms  in  which  this  divine 
perfection  is  manifested.  Now,  we  have  only  to  look  out  into  Nature, 
or  into  the  actual  course  of  Providence,  to  see  the  different  aspects  in 
which  it  appears.  God  created  the  world  in  infinite  goodness  ;  He  al- 
ways deals  with  us  in  infinite  goodness  ;  and  if  we  but  observe  how  He 
has  constructed  His  creation,  and  how  He  administers  His  govern- 
ment, we  shall  see  how,  as  matter  of  fact.  His  goodness  operates. 

"  How,  then,  does  it  appear  in  Nature  ?  Not  exclusively  in  the  form 
of  gentleness.  There  is  the  terrible  earthquake  that  strikes  all  hearts 
with  mortal  fear,  and  that  sinks  whole  cities  into  a  yawning  gulf,  crush- 
ing thousands  under  falling  ruins  and  in  the  opening  jaws  of  the  earth. 
Tliere  is  the  raging  hurricane  that  sweeps  its  path  of  desolation ;  the 
howling  storm  that  buries  the  trembling,  praying,  and  exhausted  sea- 
men in  the  bosom  of  the  deep  ;  there  is  the  thunderbolt  that  smites 
down  the  unwarned  victim.  The  solid  globe  itself  is  made  of  million 
tons  of  impracticable  granite  and  rock  to  one  of  fertile  soil ;  and  it  is 
the  law  proclaimed  by  Nature,  as  well  as  by  Revelation,  that  man  shall 
toil  and  suffer  till  he  returns  to  the  dust.  God  brings  sickness  upon 
us,  and  we  linger  through  months  and  years  of  excruciating  pain.  He 
sends  disap])ointment  into  our  long-clierished  schemes,  and  a  blight 
into  our  fondest  affections.  Though  we  pray  Him  to  avert  the  blow, 
and  struggle  in  desperation  to  turn  aside  His  descending  rod,  it  is 
often  in  vain  ;  He  strikes  home  into  our  little  circle  of  joys,  and  leaves 
us  heartbroken.  If  we  sin.  He  follows  us  with  the  punishment  as 
stanch  as  death  ;  if  we  involve  ourselves  in  ruin.  He  lets  us  take  the 
consequences  of  our  folly  or  wickedness,  without  sparing.     Now,  all 


THE  GOODNESS   OF  GOD.  63 

tills  is  but  the  manifestation  of  His  goodness,  for  He  always  acts  from 
the  same  unchanged  principle,  how  different  soever  the  outward  dispen- 
sations. '  God  is  love  ; '  but  to  us  His  love  is  as  awful,  in  some  of 
its  workings,  as  it  is  pleasant  in  others.  These,  let  it  be  remarked, 
are  known  facts,  which  it  will  not  do  to  ignore. 

"  We  must  add  that  the  Scriptures  also  represent  His  goodness  in 
the  same  two-fold  light.  We  sometimes  hear  language  which  seems 
to  imply  that  the  thought  of  God  ought  not  to  be  associated  with  any- 
thing like  severity  or  terrible  infliction  ;  that  nothing,  indeed,  but  ideas 
of  the  most  fond  and  tender  nature  ought  to  enter  into  our  conceptions 
of  Him.  This,  however,  is  not  the  teaching  of  facts,  as  has  been  seen  ; 
and  certainly  it  is  not  the  presentation  which  we  find  in  the  Bible. 
According  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  God,  who  '  is  love,' 
is  at  the  same  time,  'a  consuming  fire,'  and  '  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to 
fall  into  His  hands,'  that  is,  for  punishment.  While  they  '  beseech  us 
by  the  mercies  of  God,'  they  also  admonish  us  in  language  intended 
to  alarm,  like  the  following :  '  Despiseth  thou  the  riches  of  His  good- 
ness, and  forbearance,  and  long-suffering  ;  not  knowing  that  the  good- 
ness of  God  leadeth  thee  to  repentance ;  but,  after  thy  hardness  and 
impenitent  heart,  treasurest  up  to  thyself  wrath  against  the  day  of 
wrath,  and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  ?  '  Goodness, 
manifesting  itself  in  the  most  fearful  judgments,  as  well  as  in  gentle 
aspects,  —  this  is  the  view  which  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament, 
when  read  continuously,  present  us  of  the  subject ;  and  we  cannot  but 
see  that,  in  this,  they  perfectly  agree  with  the  facts  of  Nature  and  Provi- 
dence.    It  is  unquestionably  the  right  view. 

"  There  is  a  fanciful  assumption  that  has  been  sometimes  taken,  with 
respect  to  the  Bible,  and  dilated  in  various  forms,  namely,  that  the 
Old  Testament  speaks  only  in  tones  of  sternness  and  dread,  and  de- 
scribes God  only  as  an  object  of  terror,  implacably,  taking  vengeance 
on  His  foes ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  New  Testament  discards 
everything  of  the  kind,  and  is  all  gentleness,  seeking  only  to  win. 
We  suppose  that  this  account  of  the  matter  can  have  been  intended 
only  for  a  fancy  sketch ;  though  it  is  questionable  whether  good  taste 
will  allow,  even  in  a  fancy  sketch,  so  obvious  a  departure  from  the 
known  facts  in  the  case.  Notwithstanding  that  the  Gospel  gives  the 
fuller  revelation  of  the  character  and  purposes  of  God,  yet  the  same 
principles  are  recognized  by  both  parts  of  the  Bible,  we  mean  so  far 
as  they  go.  The  New  Testament  abounds  in  ideas  as  terrible  as  any 
that  we  meet  with  in  the  Old,  though  the  greater  refinement  of  the  later, 
age  may  have  softened,  in  some-  degree,  the  dress  in  which  they  are 
clothed.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Old  Testament  often  speaks  the 
language  of  that  noted  text  in  the  Psalms,  '  The  Lord  is  good  unto 
all,  and  His  tender  mercies  are  over  all  His  works.'  What  can  be  more 
dreadful  than  those  words  of  our  Saviour,  referring  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  nation,  *  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting 
fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels '  ?  or  that  passage  of  St. 
Paul,  with  respect  to  the  same  event,  '  The  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  re- 
vealed from  heaven,  with  his  mighty  angels,  taking  vengeance  on  them 


64  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

that  know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruction  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power '  ?  What  can 
be  more  tender  and  encouraging  than  the  words  of  the  prophet,  '  Can 
a  woman  forget  her  sucking  child,  that  she  should  not  have  compassion 
on  the  son  of  her  womb  ?  Yea,  they  may  forget,  yet  will  not  I  forget 
thee !  '  Either  Testament  would  be  altogether  one-sided,  and  there- 
fore in-actically  false,  did  it  aim  only  to  soothe  and  console,  or  only  to 
terrify  and  repress. 

"  Perhaps  it  will  now  be  said,  according,  then,  to  these  views,  God  is 
good  but  in  part,  and  He  is,  in  part,  otherwise.  No;  this  is  not  the 
jjroper  conclusion,  nor  is  it  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures.  '  God  is 
love  ; '  He  is  wholly  good  in  every  act  and  in  every  purpose.  But  the 
important  truth  on  which  we  would  fix  attention,  and  which  embraces 
all  we  have  said  on  the  subject,  is  this  :  that  His  goodness  works  by  se- 
verity as  well  as  by  indulgence.  All  true  goodness  operates  -in  this 
way.  It  is  not  goodness,  it  is  a  mischievous  dotage,  which  is  so  weakly 
tender  that  it  cannot  employ  harsh  and  even  terrible  methods  Avhen 
occasion  demands.  In  such  cases,  it  always  does  harm  whether  it  at- 
tempt to  govern  on  the  broad  theatre  of  a  nation,  or  in  the  narrower 
circle  of  a  community,  school,  family,  or  individual,  —  in  civil,  or  in 
moral  and  religious  affairs.  "Wherever  human  nature  is  to  be  dealt 
with,  in  the  present  existence,  we  can  see  that  the  removal  of  all 
grounds  of  fear,  or  of  jiainful  necessity,  would  at  length  prove  an  evil 
incomparably  greater  than  any  which  we  now  encounter  ;  it  would  be 
like  dissolving  the  spheres  by  abrogating  the  law  of  repulsion  as  the 
complement  to  that  of  attraction."  * 

These  are  weighty  and  momentous  words.  As  thus  ex- 
pounded, Universalism  will  hardly  be  thought  by  anybody 
to  give  signs  of  '  diseased  sentimentalism,'  or  of  being  '  tlie 
exaggeration  or  perversion  of  philanthropy  ; '  and  upon  the 
basis  of  these  facts  and  principles,  it  can  alone  be  made 
most  potent  for  the  work  of  human  redemption.  It  is  un- 
deniable that  so  the  Bible  holds  and  sets  forth  the  goodness 
of  God.     Can  we  improve  upon  its  method  ? 

There  is  another  view  of  the  subject,  too,  which  must  not 
be  overlooked  —  a  view  very  clearly  involved,  indeed,  as 
Dr.  Ballou  puts  the  case,  but  that  has  not  hitherto  received 
the  recognition  to  which  its  importance  entitles  it.  The 
goodness  of  God,  in  its  very  nature,  is  unappeasable,  unre- 
lenting, in  its  demands.  A  love  less  determined  and  endur- 
ing would  tire  in  the  work  of  human  recovery,  abandoning 
the  obdurate  and  impenitent  to  themselves.  But  His  love 
is  inexorable,  unconquerable.     It  never  will  let  go,  steadily 

*  Universalist  Quarterly,  vol.  vii.  pp.  286-290. 


THE  GOODNESS  OF  GOD.  65 

pursuing  its  purpose  to  bring  all  souls  into  liarraony  with 
itself,  however  benumbed  or  obstinate  any  may  be,  through 
whatever  terrible  furnaces  of  penalty  and  pain  it  may  be- 
come necessary  to  lead  them. 

Better  than  any  dogmatic  statement  or  argumentation,  on 
this  point,  are  the  words  of  George  McDonald,  in  Eobert 
Falconer's  talk  with  his  poor,  weak,  lost  father,*  —  words 
that  none  of  us  would  accept  as  to  precise  form,  perhaps, 
but  that  in  spirit  are  not  only  richly  suggestive  concerning 
this  persistent,  consuming  love  of  God,  but  also  as  to  the 
moral  inertness  which  is  one  of  the  chief  hinderances  in  the 
way  of  the  confirmed  sinner's  return :  — 

" '  Father,'  repeated  Robert,  '  you've  got  to  repent,  and  God  won't 
let  you  ofi',  and  you  needn't  think  it.  You'll  have  to  repent  some 
day.' 

"  '  In  hell,  Robert,'  said  Andrew.  .  .  . 

"  '  Yes,  either  on  earth  or  in  hell.    Would  it  not  be  better  on  earth  ?  ' 

"  '  But  it  will  be  no  use  in  hell,'  he  murmured. 

"In  those  few  words  lay  the  germ  of  the  preference  for  hell  of 
poor  souls,  enfeebled  by  M'ickedness.  They  will  not  have  to  do  any- 
thing there  —  only  to  moan  and  cry,  and  suifer  forever  —  they  think. 
It  is  efi'ort,  the  outgoing  of  the  living  will,  that  they  dread.  The 
sorrow,  the  remorse  of  repentance,  they  do  not  so  much  regard.  It  is 
the  action  it  involves  ;  it  is  the  having  to  turn,  be  diflerent,  and  do  dif- 
ferently, that  they  shrink  from  ;  and  they  have  been  taught  to  believe 
that  this  will  not  be  required  of  them  there,  in  that  awful  refuge  of  the 
will-less.  I  do  not  say  they  think  thus  ;  I  only  say  their  dim,  vague, 
feeble  feelings  are  such  as,  if  they  grew  into  thought,  would  take  this 
form.  But  tell  them  that  the  fire  of  God  without  and  within  tliem  will 
compel  them  to  bethink  themselves  ;  that  the  vision  of  an  open  door 
beyond  the  smoke  and  the  flames  will  ever  urge  them  to  call  up  the 
ice-bound  will,  that  it  may  obey  ;  that  the  torturing  spirit  of  God  in 
them  will  keep  their  consciences  awake,  —  not  to  remind  them  of  what 
they  ought  to  have  done,  but  to  tell  them  what  they  must  do  now,  — 
and  hell  will  no  longer  fascinate  them.  Tell  them  that  there  is  no 
refuge  from  the  compelling  love  of  God,  save  that  love  itself,  —  that  He 
is  in  hell,  too,  and  that,  if  they  make  their  bed  in  hell,  they  shall  not 
escape  Him,  and  then,  perhaps,  they  will  have  some  true  presentiment 
of  '  the  worm  that  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  that  is  not  quenched.' 

"  '  Father,  it  unll  be  of  use  in  hell,'.said  Robert ;  '  God  will  give  you  no 
rest  even  there.' "  f 

*  Pp.  493,  494. 

t  As  these  pages  are  about  leaving  my  hands  for  the  printer's,  our 
papers  give  us  tlie  admirable  sermon  of  Eev.  J.  M.  Pullman,  before  the 
Convention  at  Washington,  in  which,  with  others.,  both  these  points 
5 


66  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

There  is  much  in  the  spirit  of  all  this,  as  I  said,  for  us  to 
think  of.  The  love  of  God  is,  beyond  all  controversy,  the 
central  and  most  precious  truth  of  the  Gospel.  No  jot  must 
"we  lessen  the  stress  and  prominence  we  have  given  it.  The 
most  influential  '  evangelical '  pulpits  in  the  land  to-day, 
those  that  are  most  mightily  touching  the  keys  of  the  popu- 
lar heart,  are  made  what  they  are  by  the  preaching  of  this 
truth.  We  must  not  surrender  a  whit  of  its  power  to  them. 
There  would  be  no  Gospel  without  it.  But  the  Abyssinians 
—  to  say  nothing  of  others  nearer  home  —  demonstrate  how 

made  by  McDonald  are  strongly  presented.  "  Love,"  says  Mr.  Pull- 
man, "  is  changeless  ;  it  is  inexorable.  Forever  and  ever,  in  any  world, 
under  any  and  every  circumstance,  it  must  pursue  its  objects  till  its 
continual  desire  respecting  them  is  accomplished.  .  .  .  God  has  pun- 
ished you.  While  He  has  seemed  in  so  doing  to  be  devoid  of  pity,  .  .  . 
there  has  alwaj's  been  the  alternative  of  repentance  and  reconciliation. 
.  .  .  The  possibility  of  reunion  has  never  been  closed."  He  well  says, 
too,  that  this  doctrine  of  God's  ijursuing  and  inexorable  love  furnishes 
"  the  true  terror  "  for  the  sinful.  "  To  the  awakened  iiiind,  God's  prom- 
ise that  it  shall  be  restored  to  virtue  comes  to  bless  ;  but  to  the  unawak- 
ened  heart  that  promise  comes  as  a  threat,  and  there  can  be  no  terror 
in  all  the  world  so  awful  as  that  which  comes  when  one  is  made  to  feel 
that  his  darling  sin  .  .  .  is  to  be  withdrawn.  .  .  .  Let  the  dungeons  of 
the  prison  and  the  lunatic  asylum,  let  tlie  walls  that  have  echoed  with 
horrible  shrieks,  let  the  ears  that  have  become  hardened  with  such  cries, 
tell  us  what  they  know  of  the  terrors  of  restoration.  Tlien  shall  we 
understand  that  it  is  no  holiday  matter,  that  it  is  nothing  for  us  to 
throw  ourselves  laughingly  upon,  that  God  has  issued  His  decree  that 
He  will  at  last  have  all  souls  redeemed,  and  brought  back  pure  into  His 
kingdom."  And,  commenting  upon  this  sermon,  the  Christian  Leader 
well  says  :  "  We  get  down  to  the  core  of  our  theology  when  we  recog- 
nize that  the  love  of  God  is  inexorable.  As  the  preacher  pertinently 
put  it,  the  Divine  Love  is  a  consuming  fire.  .  .  .  The  statement  that 
God  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty  is  only  half  understood  until  it  is 
construed  to  mean  that  He  will  by  no  means  permit  him  to  remain  in 
his  guilt.  The  most  momentous  truth  of  revelation  is  that  no  soul  can 
escape  the  decree  which  has  ordained  that  it  shall  be  holy,  -liarndess, 
undefiled.  And  what  an  irresistible  jDOwer  is  in  this  searching  trutli ! 
Once  get  it  fairly  before  the  minds  of  men  that  there  is  absolutely  no 
escape  from  the  decree  that  they  shall  be  good,  and  how  mightily  will 
your  appeal  for  purity,  honor  and  righteousness  move  them  !  It  is  the 
delusion  that  there  is  some  way  out  of  this  inflexible  grasp  of  Immortal 
Love  that  permits  the  vain  artifice's  to  which  men  so  generally  resort. 
Universalism  teaches  that  there  is  no  escape  from  the  purpose  of  God 
to  have  all  men  saved  and  come  unto  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  It 
thus  teaches  what  the  saintly  Henry  Scougal  felt  when  he  exclaimed, 
'  To  go  anywhere  wrong  is  to  run  against  the  love  of  God,  which  every 
way  circumvents  us  and  drives  us  back.' " 
So  the  New  Departure  has,  in  this  respect,  begun. 


THE   GOODNESS   OF  GOD.  67 

it  may  be  held  only  for  evil.     Universalism,  we  must  caiase 
it  to  be  everywhere  understood,  is  no  ministry  of  this  truth 
in   any   such   direction.     It  is  a  gospel   of  love,  we  must 
insist,  but  of  no  mere  good-nature,  of  no  sentimental  laxity, 
that  simply  pities  wrong-doing,  and  talks  only  in  gentle  and 
persuasive  tones,   and  sprinkles  its  delicate  perfumes,  and 
dilutes  God's  administration  into   a   reign  of  mere  sympa- 
thetic indulgence,  as  if  there  were  no  such  thing  as  sin  to 
be  punished,  and  no  such  severe  and  terrific  facts  as  make 
up  one  side  of  God's  appointments.     His  government  has 
many  sides   and  many  instruments,  we  are   to  remember. 
The  Bible  talks  of  His  wrath  as  well  as  of  His  love,  because, 
in  a  mere  natural  view.  His  retributions   seem  to   indicate 
displeasure.      But  though  His  love  tempers  and  explains  the 
expression  as  symbolic,  it  does  not  wholly  explain  away  its 
significance  as  a  symbol.     There  is  always  grave  and  some- 
times fearful  meaning  in  it ;    and  any  theory  of  God  or  His 
government  which  fails  to   recognize  this  meaning,  and  to 
give  it  due  place,  is  so  far  one-sided,  and  to  this  extent  false. 
This,  then,  is  the  New  Departure  whereunto  we  are  called 
in   this   particular.      God's  words  to  us  include  '  Woe  !  '   as 
well  as   '  Blessed  ! '      We  are  summoned  henceforth  more 
discriminatingly  to  enforce  both,  availing  ourselves,  as  some 
have   always  done,  of  all  the  grounds  of  appeal  thus  fur- 
nished ;    only  bearing  constantly  in  mind,  and  never  failing 
duly  to  emphasize,  the  fact  that,  however  God  may  deal 
with  us.  He  is  our  Father,  perpetually  true  to  a  Father's 
name  and  obligations,  and,  even  amidst  His  severest  inflic- 
tions, however  relentlessly,  still  always  beneficently  seeking 
our  welfare.     In  a  word,  the  Goodness  of  God  must  so  take 
form  in  our  thought,  and  so  be  presented  to  others,  as  to 
lead  alike  us  and  them  up  to  His  throne,  to  adore  that  mar- 
vellous Love,  and  that  infinite,  unwearied,  inflexible  Patience, 
which,  numbering  the  very  hairs  of  our  heads,  clings  to  us, 
watches  over  us,  pleads  with  us,  punishes  us  as  we  deserve, 
disciplines  us  as  we  need,  and,  through  whatever  terrible 
paths  of  sorrow  or  of  sufi"ering  He  may  load  us,  never  lets 
us  go,  and  never  will  let  us   go,  till,  availing  ourselves  of 
His  helps,  and  responding  to  His  appeals,  we  all  come  home, 
to  fulfil  His  purpose,  and   find  our   peace  in  harmony  with 
Him  forever. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

"BOUGHT    WITH    A   PRICE." 

There  is  no  saving  power  in  Christianity,  except  as  there 
is  first  a  personal  interest  in  Christ ;  and  such  an  interest 
is  possible  only  as  there  is  to  inspire  it  some  fitting  sense 
of  what  Christ  has  done  for  us,  and  of  the  reality  and 
magnitude  of  the  obligations  under  which  he  has  placed  us. 

If,  then,  Universalism  is  to  be  made  more  religiously  ef- 
fective, this  is  one  of  the  points  to  which  increased  atten- 
tion must  systematically  be  given.  We  have  always  made 
Christ  prominent.  But,  as  the  rule,  have  we  not  made 
him  prominent  chiefly  in  his  general  relations — as  the 
means  of  God's  appointment,  destined  certainly  to  re- 
deem our  race  ?  Have  we  equally  pressed  his  personal 
relations  and  claims,  and  our  personal  obligations  ?  These 
questions  found  their  answer  in  our  first  chapter. 

How  shall  we,  to  best  purpose,  press  these  personal 
relations  and  claims,  and  our  consequent  obligations  ? 
is,  therefore,  I  believe,  just  now,  one  of  the  inquiries  of 
most  urgent  interest  to  our  future  usefulness.  And,  as  I 
state  the  inquiry,  Paul's  words  to  the  Corinthians,  "  Ye 
are  not  your  own,  for  ye  are  bought  tvith  a  i^rice,^^  seem 
to  me  to  suggest  the  best  answer.  Ingratitude  is  univer- 
sally held  in  odium.  So  far  as  any  moral  sentiment  asserts 
itself,  mankind  are  always  touched  by  undeserved  sacrifices 
in  their  behalf.  To  the  same  extent,  then,  that  we  can 
penetrate  men  with  the  feeling  that  they  belong  to  Christ 
by  virtue  of  what  it  has  cost  him  to  serve  them,  we  shall 
awaken  them  to  a  sense  of  these  personal  relations  and 
obligations  to  him.  Herein  is  the  explanation  of  the  efficacy 
of  what  is  called  evangelical  preaching,  so  far  as  it  has 
ever  moved  and  won  hearts.  It  assigns  to  Christ  a  specific 
"7  work    for  our   sake,    and   so    compels   the   feeling   of    obli- 

'  gation   to  him.     Much  of  its   apparent  success,  it  is  true, 

is    due  to  fright,  and    nervous  excitement,  and  mercenary 

68 


BOUGHT    WITH    A   PRICE.  69 

and  terrific  appeals,  quite  out  of  place  in  any  Christian 
pulpit,  producing  results  only  seemingly  religious,  and  not 
seldom  working  injury  alike  to  the  convert  and  the  church. 
But  that  it  has  been  instrumental  in  the  real  conversion  of 
many  souls,  inducing  their  genuine  consecration  to  God,  is 
equally  undeniable.  Proceeding  on  a  false  theory  of  our 
exposure,  such  conversions  have  nevertheless  been  wrought 
by  a  true  sense  of  Christ's  self-sacrifice.  The  exposure 
has  been  assumed  to  be,  our  liability  to  endless  perdition, 
under  God's  wrath  and  curse  ;  but  as  the  cross  has  been 
pictured,  and  the  pitying  Saviour  has  been  portrayed 
hanging  upon  it,  forgetful  of  himself  in  his  love  for  us, 
willing  to  die  that  we  might  live,  and  the  appeal  has  been 
urged,  Can  you  be  indiflerent  to  such  an  interest  in  your 
welfare  ?  the  loving  spirit  of  Christ  has  shone  through  all 
encompassing  errors,  and  the  effect  has  invariably  been  to 
awaken  to  penitence  and  attract  to  a  religious  life,  in  pro- 
portion as  attention  has  been  secured,  and  the  reality 
of  the  sacrifice  has  come  home  to  thought  and  con- 
science. Much  as  we  may  abhor  its  theory  of  redemption, 
justice  compels  the  confession  that,  as  so  administered, 
'  orthodoxy  '  has  proved  itself  widely  —  and  despite  its 
terrible  misconceptions,  beneficently. —  potent  for  religious 
ends  ;  and  a  host  of  devoted  and  saintly  souls,  won  many 
of  them  from  open  and  flagrant  courses  of  sin,  have, 
through  the  centuries,  been  wedded  to  Christ  by  it  in  a 
sense  of  obligation  which  has  mastered  every  faculty,  and 
made  their  whole  subsequent  lives  one  continued  and 
chivalric  purpose  to  love  and  serve  a  Saviour  who  has 
done  so  much  for  them.  It  is  for  us,  on  the  basis  of  our 
better  interpretation,  if  we  wish  to  have  our  labors  ac- 
companied with  similar  signs  following,  to  be  equally  spe- 
cific in  setting  forth  what  Christ  has  done  for  us,  and 
in  urging  home  its  appeal.  Generalities  move  nobody. 
Talk  to  a  man  in  a  vague,  miscellaneous  way  about  favors 
conferred  upon  him,  and,  ordinarily,  little  or  no  impression 
is  made  ;  but  let  some  one  leap  into  the  water  to  save  his 
life,  or  lose  a  limb,  or  shed  so  much  as  a  drop  of  blood 
for  him,  and  the  probability  is,  that  he  will  ever  after 
feel  himself  in  debt  to  his  benefactor.     AVith  a  like  direct- 


70  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

ness  of  appeal,  we  must  seek  to  impress  people  with  as 
vivid  and  realistic  a  sense  of  what  Christ  has  done  to  be- 
friend and  save  them.  For  all  7'eligious  purposes,  we  might 
as  well  cease  to  be,  if  we  do  not. 

Hence  the  importance  of  this  fact  that  we  are  "  bought 
with  a  price."  It  is  the  central  fact  in  Christ's  relations  to 
us.  The  entire  plan  of  redemption,  so  far  as  he  is  a  party 
in  it,  grows  out  of  this  —  that  he  loved  us  and  gave  him- 
self for  us,  "  a  ransom  for  all,  to  be  testified  in  due  time." 
There  was,  indeed,  as  we  believe,  no  bargain  in  the  case. 
The  '  evangelical '  theory  has  always  assumed  that  there 
must  have  been  ;  that  a  price  could  really  be  paid  only  in 
some  such  commercial  sense.  On  this  account,  as  the 
Bible  speaks  of  our  bondage  to  Satan,  it  was  at  one  time 
supposed  that  the  ransom  was  paid  to  him.  Then,  as  the 
absurdity  of  this  became  apparent,  the  theory  now  current 
obtained  —  the  theory,  scarcely  less  absurd  and  even  more 
barbarous,  that  Christ  had  to  buy  off  God  from  His  re- 
lentless purpose  of  vengeance,  by  suffering  in  our  stead 
an  equivalent  for  our  endless  woe.  We  hold  no  such  theories. 
We  pronounce  them  as  derogatory  to  God  as  they  are  de- 
grading to  the  conception  of  our  salvation.  But  the  price 
at  which  we  have  been  bought,  we  insist,  is  none  the  less 
real.  There  was  no  wrath  or  curse  of  God,  no  impending 
sword,  no  endless  woe,  from  which  it  was  needful  for 
Christ  to  purchase  our  escape.  But  there  was  sin  ; 
there  was  ignorance  ;  there  was  selfishness  with  its  canker 
and  its  curse  ;  there  was  pain  for  which  there  was  no 
healing,  and  sorrow  that  had  no  consolation  ;  there  was 
spiritual  darkness,  destitution,  death.  These  were  more 
than  any  material  hell  could  be.  From  these  we  needed 
deliverance,  and  because  of  these  the  world  needed  the 
infusion  of  some  fresh  moral  force,  an  element  of  Divine 
life,  for  its  regeneration.  Therefore  Christ  came  —  to 
teach  us  ;  to  awaken  and  inspire  us  ;  to  make  us  con- 
scious of  God  and  spiritually  self  conscious  ;  and  thus 
to  save  us  by  putting  us  into  electric  contact  with  im- 
perishable realities,  by  making  sin  abhorrent  to  us,  and 
by  so  shedding  something  of  his  own  vitality  into  us 
"that  we   might  have  life,  and  have  it  more  abundantly." 


BOUGHT   WITH   A  PRICE.  71 

But  all  this  could  be  done  only  at  the  cost  of  loneliness  and 
pain,  of  obloquy  and  toil,  of  the  ignominy  and  anguish 
of  the  cross.  And  this  was  the  price  at  which  he  bought 
us  —  tills  giving  of  himself,  a  willing  sacrifice,  to  suffer  and 
to  die  for  our  salvation ;  —  a  price  paid  to  no  being  or 
law,  as  a  consideration  for  our  release,  but  paid  as  mothers 
pay  weary  days  and  sleepless  niglits  in  the  sick  rooms 
of  their  children,  for  their  recovery ;  paid  as  the  patriots 
of  our  revolution  paid  their  hardships  and  blood  to  ran- 
som us  from  British  oppression,  and  as  later  soldiers  and 
patriots  paid  their  valor  and  their  lives  to  maintain  the 
institutions  thus  founded ;  paid  as  sacrifice  has  ever 
been  the  price  of  privilege,  and  as  hazard  and  suffer- 
ing are  the  usual  cost  at  which  groat  blessings  are  bought. 

Christ  is  an  idea  and  a  principle.  But  he  is  more.  He 
is  a  pervading  fact.  Asking  as  to  the  origin  of  the  world 
and  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  which  it  is  so  full,  every- 
thing points  to  God.  God  is  written  in  an  alphabet  of 
light  and  beauty  on  the  heavens,  and  in  hieroglyphics 
of  verdure,  grandeur  and  use  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth. 
God  is  whispered  by  the  breeze  ;  is  sung  by  the  birds 
and  the  waving  corn  ;  is  preached  by  the  rolling  thunder 
and  by  the  everlasting  throbbing  of  the  ocean.  And 
so,  if  we  ask  as  to  the  origin  of  the  ideas,  institutions 
and  influences  by  which  we  are  most  enriched  and  bene- 
fited, we  are  just  as  certainly  pointed  to  Christ.  Ef- 
forts have  been  made  to  eliminate  him  as  a  factor  in 
modern  progress ;  to  explain  it  on  various  grounds  of 
climate,  geographical  position,  intellectual  conditions,  and 
other  hypotheses.  But  he  is  not  to  be  eliminated.  What- 
ever simulation  of  facts  may  be  contrived,  whatever  spe- 
cious web  of  appearances  may  be  woven,  to  get  rid  of  him, 
he  meets  us  everywhere  ;  and  every  stream  of  good  by 
which  our  lives  are  watered  and  fertilized,  if  followed  up 
to  its  source,  leads  us  back  to  the  tomb  in  Joseph's 
garden, — to  the  cross  on  Calvarj^ — to  the  sea-shore 
whei'C  Christ  taught,  or  to  the  mountain  where  he  prayed, 
—  and  finally  to  the  manger  in  Bethlehem  where  he  was 
born.  All  modern  history  is  full  of  him.  As  a  distin- 
guished historian  has  said,  his  life  "  is  the  greatest    event 


72  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

in  the  annals  of  time.  The  former  ages  had  been  a  prep- 
aration for  it;  the  latter  nnroll  from  it."  Whatever  we 
may  know,  believe,  or  have,  worth  the  having  or  keeping,  no 
man  can  say  that  it  would  have  been  ours  without  Christ. 
He  has  quickened  thought ;  animated  investigation  ;  ed- 
ucated taste ;  created  a  new  conscience ;  refined  and 
ameliorated  law ;  sanctified  home ;  suggested  and  in- 
spired every  moral  and  social  reform.  He  has  shed 
abroad  a  new  class  of  convictions,  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions ;  has  furnished  a  new  ideal  of  character,  and  the 
materials  and  incentives  for  attaining  it ;  has  lifted  life  into 
grander  relations,  filled  it  with  more  exalted  aspirations, 
clothed  it  with  loftier  meanings.  Like  the  sunlight  and 
the  rain,  his  religion  sheds  its  blessings  for  the  benefit 
of  all ;  and  no  neglect  is  gross  enough,  no  unbelief  per- 
verse enough  to  hinder  it  from  shedding  something  of 
its  benediction  upon  us^  or  to  enable  any  one  to  say,  It 
does  nothing  for  me.  As  a  spiritual  essence  pervades 
all  material  forms,  as  the  air  we  breathe  surrounds  the 
globe,  vitalizing,  beautifying  all,  so  Christ  pervades  every- 
thing about  us,  encompassing  us  with  his  benign  ministries, 
bathing  our  lives  with  refreshment,  and  filling  them  with 
whatever  makes  them  most  a  joy. 

And  whatever  thus  points  us  back  to  Christ  is  somehow 
a  reminder  of  the  price  at  which  we  have  been  bought. 
Not  one  of  these  gifts  or  blessings  in  which,  directly  or 
indirectly,  we  so  share,  could  have  been  ours  if  Christ  had 
not  purchased  it  by  the  life  of  weariness  and  deprivation, 
of  contempt  and  sacrifice  which  he  lived  for  us,  and  by  the 
death  of  shame  and  agony,  and  yet  of  sublime  endurance 
and  forgiving  love,  which  he  died  for  us.  All  that  is  meant 
by  our  Christian  knowledge,  and  every  privilege  peculiar  to 
our  Christian  birth,  —  our  faith  in  God,  our  familiarity  with 
the  terms  of  Divine  pardon  and  acceptance,  our  assui'ance 
of  immortality,  —  all  our  means  of  Christian  culture,  and 
all  that  renders  our  Christian  civilization  so  superior  to  every 
other,  and  so  affluent  in  the  elements  of  personal  and  social 
welfare,  —  in  one  word,  all  that  is  incllided  in  our  redemp- 
tion, here  or  hereafter,  bears  the  impress  of  the  cross,  and 
comes  to  us  at  Christ's  cost  —  as  the  fruit  of  some  pang 


BOUGHT   WITH  A  PEICE.  73 

by  which  he  was  tortured,  of  some  drop  of  the  blood  that 
trickled  from  his  brow  or  side,  of  some  sorrow  that  he 
bore,  or  of  some  self-denial  that  he  accepted  for  our  sake  : 
and  could  we  but  for  once  distinctly  gather  up  in  our 
thought  all  that  this  price  involved  —  the  wrestle  and  the 
travail,  —  the  homelessness  and  the  weariness,  —  the  isola- 
tion from  all  human  sympathy,  because  his  best  friends  even 
could  so  little  understand  him,  —  the  haunting  sense  of 
being  constantly  dogged,  hunted,  hated,  without  cause,  — 
the  garden  agony,  — the  betrayal  and  the  desertion,  —  the 
stripes  and  mockery  and  bufi'etings,  —  the  walk  to  Calvary, 
fainting  beneath  the  cross,  and  the  excruciating  anguish  of 
slowly  dying  upon  it,  and  then  feel,  each  one  of  us.  All  this 
was  for  ME,  we  should  never  again  be  indifferent,  or  fail  to 
feel,  or  to  make  others  feel,  what  such  a  price  demands. 

To  make  real  to  ourselves  and  others,  then,  this  price  at 
which  we  have  been  bought,  is  the  one  thing  we  have  to  do, 
if  wo  would  have  our  Church  mighty  in  winning  souls  to 
Christ,  feeling  that  they  belong  to  him.  "  Christ  and  him 
crucified  "  was  the  burden  of  Apostolic  faith  and  labor.  It 
must  be  no  less  the  burden  of  ours ;  and  if  God  is  speaking 
any  word  to  us  as  a  Church,  this  clearly  is  part  of  it,  "  By 
this  conquer."  The  cross  is  the  symbol  of  Christ's  power: 
and  always,  we  shall,  personally,  have  the  richest  Christian 
experience  in  proportion  as  we  cling  to  it,  appreciating  its 
meaning  ;  and  as  a  Church,  we  shall  attract  and  help  to  save 
souls  on  the  same  condition.  Nor  must  the  cross  lose  a 
whit  of  its  New  Testament  significance,  or  glory,  at  our 
hands.  Our  failure  is  certain  so  far  as  it  does.  Mothei'S, 
watching  in  the  sick  rooms  of  their  children,  and  patriots, 
periling  life  for  their  country,  were  just  now  referred  to  as 
exemplifying  how  Christ  has  bought  us.  But  all  such  ex- 
amples fall  far  short  of  paralleling  his  whole  work  in  our 
salvation.  They  indicate  only  the  general  nature  of  the 
price  he  paid.  They  do  not  at  all  illustrate  its  exact  rela- 
tions and  spiritual  efficacy.  Christ  suffered  and  died  as  a 
martyr,  but  not  simply  as  a  martyr.  Kationalize  upon  the 
subject  as  we  may,  we  still  have  to  say  with  Paley,  "that 
the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  is  spoken  of  in  reference  to  human 
salvation  in  terms  and  in  a  manner  in  which  the  death  of  no 


74  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

person  whatever  is  spoken  of  besides.  Others  have  died 
martyrs  as  well  as  oi;r  Lord.  Others  have  suffered  in  a 
righteous  cause  as  well  as  he.  But  that  is  said  of  his  death 
and  sufferings  which  is  not  said  of  any  one  else.  An 
efficacy  and  a  concern  are  ascribed  to  them  in  the  business 
of  human  salvation  which  are  not  ascribed  to  any  other."  * 
It  is  a  part  of  the  honorable  record  of  the  Universalist  Church, 
that  to  this  view  of  the  subject  it  has  been,  theoretically, 
steadfastly  committed.  Our  call  is,  if  we  are  more  effect- 
ually to  do  the  work  of  a  Church,  that  not  only  shall  we 
continue  thus  theoretically  committed  to  this  view,  but  that 
we  give  it  increased  stress  and  prominence,  and  therefore 
increased  power. 

Increased  powe7',  I  say  :  for  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  crucified  Christ  is  the  final  power  by  which  the  world  is 
to  be  saved.  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  tlie  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me,"  said  our  Lord  (John  xii.  32). 
Only  in  the  cross  did  his  ability  to  save  souls,  and  therefore 
the  means  for  the  world's  redemption,  become  complete. 
And  why?  For  many  reasons  —  chief  among  which  was 
the  fact  that  only  thus  could  a  superior  ownership  in  us  be 
best  asserted,  and  we  be  brought  to  surrender  ourselves  to 
its  will.  "  We  are  not  our  own:  "  this  is  the  grand  lesson 
of  the  cross.  The  general  assumption  is,  first,  that  we  are 
our  own,  and  second,  that  we  have  a  right,  therefore,  to  be, 
or  to  do,  what  we  please.  H6nce  the  unbridled  self-asser- 
tion which  is  the  one  root  of  all  wrong  and  sin.  Of  course, 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  both  these  assumptions  are  true. 
But  in  the  highest  sense  neither  is  true.  Even  in  our  mere 
human  relations,  considering  the  vast  net-work  in  which  we 
are  woven,  we  are  not  our  own.  We  belong  to  the  Past, 
as  the  heirs  of  its  blessings  ;  to  the  Present,  as  the  stewards 
of  its  responsibilities ;  to  the  Future,  as  the  guardians  of 
its  welfare.  We  belong  to  our  parents  ;  to  our  bi-others  and 
sisters,  if  we  have  them  ;  to  our  families  and  homes  ;  to  our 
associates  and  friends  ;  to  every  human  being  who  has  done 
us  a  kindness,  or  who  needs  our  aid  ;  to  our  country  ;  to  our 
race.  How  much  more,  then,  to  Christ  and  to  God  !  We 
have  not  a  faculty  —  of  body  or  of  mind,  we  have  not  a  gift 

*  Sermon  on  "The  Efficacy  of  the  Death  of  Christ,"  Part  I. 


BOUGHT  WITH  A   PRICE.  75 

—  of  money,  position,  or  privilege,  which  we  are  at  liberty 
to  use  with  sole  reference  to  our  own  wills,  without  regard 
even  to  these  human  relations,  —  much  less  as  if  we  did  not 
belong  to  God,  and  to  the  Saviour  who  has  so  purchased  us. 
This  is  the  central  fact  of  which  God,  through  Christianity, 
is  seeking  to  make  us  aware.  This  is  the  meaning  of  His 
Fatherhood.  It  is  equally  the  meaning  of  our  Brotherhood, 
The  cross  is  the  consummate  proclamation  of  this  fact,  in 
concrete.  It  is  God's  senso  of  ownership  and  His  great 
consequent  interest  in  us,  —  it  is  Christ's  marvellous  love, 
willing  at  any  price  to  gain  possession  of  us,  put  into  sensible 
form  ;  and  in  whomsoever  its  power  is  at  all  felt,  self-asser- 
tion is  so  far  vanquished,  and  the  will  of  God,  as  expressed 
in  Christ,  becomes  supreme. 

Here,  then,  summarily,  in  this  particular,  is  our  new  work 

—  to  so  hold  and  preach  the  crucified  Christ  as  to  fill  souls 
with  the  consciousness  that  they  are  not  their  own,  because 
bought  with  a  price,  and  thus  to  inspire  them  with  the 
purpose  in  all  things  to  make  God's  will  in  Christ  supreme. 
Theoretically,  there  is  little  occasion  for  labor  on  these 
points.  Theoreticallj'-,  whoever  believes  in  God  and  Christ, 
more  or  less  accepts  the  lessons  of  the  cross  as  to  their 
ownership  in  us  ;  and  Universalists  especially,  however 
nominal,  are  fond  of  appealing  to  these  ties  which  link  us 
to  God  and  the  Saviour  as,  in  their  nature,  indissoluble,  and 
thus  to  demonstrate  that  no%oul  can  be  finally  lost.  And 
in  our  distress  and  sorrow,  when  disappointment  comes  and 
our  earthly  props  fail  us,  who  does  not  find  it  pleasant  to 
think  of  what  Christ  has  done  to  comfort  and  save  us,  and 
to  fall  back  on  God,  assured  that  through  whatever  gloom 
we  may  be  led,  or  however  we  may  seem  to  be  forsaken. 
He  reckons  us  as  His  own,  and  will  never  leave  nor  forget 
us  ?  What  we  want  is  a  practical  faith  in  what  is  now,  to 
a  great  extent,  only  theory.  What  we  want  is  a  new 
unction  and  emphasis  in  urging  these  conceded  truths  as 
elements  of  a  sanctifying  experience  —  so  that  theory,  argu- 
ment, and  comfortable  assurance  shall  be  translated  into 
reverent  and  holy  living,  and  become  the  intellectual  basis 
upon  which  our  Church  shall  make  itself  widely  felt  in 
Christ's  behalf  for  the  salvation  of  souls. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHEIST   ESSENTIAL. 

The  fact  that  Christ  has  bonght  us  at  so  great  a  price, 
establishes  his  claim  on  our  grateful  service  ;  and  the  nature 
of  his  appointment  and  the  purpose  of  his  relations  to  us  be- 
ing what  they  are,  he  is,  clearly,  if  we  owe  him  any  such  ser- 
vice, entitled  to  be  enthroned  as  paramount  in  the  mastery  of 
our  lives.  But  is  he,  in  any  sense,  essential  to  us  ?  Do  we, 
for  any  reason,  owe  it  to  ourselves  as  well  as  to  him  to 
become  his  disciples,  and  thus  to  make  him  the  life  of  our 
being  ?  It  is  one  of  the  gravest  of  the  many  allegations  to 
be  made  against  the  sacrificial  theology,  that  it  has  poisoned 
the  popular  mind  with  the  idea  that  he  is  not  essential  —  ex- 
cept as  an  insurance  against  fire,  or  as  the  shelter  of  an 
overcoat  or  an  umbrella  amidst  a  storm,  or  as  any  expedient 
to  save  us  from  outward  exposure  or  harm,  is  essential. 
One  of  the  ever-recurring  questions  by  way  of  objection  to 
Universalism,  as  is  well  known,  long  has  been,  What  is 
the  use  of  Christ,  or  of  faith  in  him,  or  of  worship,  or  of  any- 
thing we  call  religion,  if  there  be  no  wrath  of  God,  and  no 
everlasting  perdition,  from  which  we  need  to  be  rescued  ? 
Only  because  we  are  under  the  condemnation  of  the  Divine 
law,  and  Christ  is  an  "  expedient  by  which  God  can  consist- 
ently and  honorably  forgive  "  us,  the  prevalent  teaching  has 
been,  have  we  any  occasion  for  him  ;  and  thousands  of  pro- 
fessed Christians — many  of  them  far  better  people  than 
such  language  would  indicate  —  have  habitually  said,  and 
thousands  are  still  saying.  Convince  us  that  Christ  has  no 
such  use  to  answer  in  our  behalf,  and  we  will  give  him  no 
further  thought  or  service  ;  we  will  henceforth  defy  God, 
and  revel  in  sin.  In  other  words,  as  a  contrivance  enabling 
us  to  '  make  our  peace  with  God,'  and  evade  the  demands 
of  justice,  as  a  rescue  from  the  fires  of  an  endless  hell,  Christ 
is  a  convenience,  —  in  a  sense,  a  necessity  ;  but  in  no  other 
sense  is  he  essential,  or  at  all  important  to  us. 

76 


CHRIST  ESSENTIAL.  77 

Happily,  in  the  g-rowing-  Cliristianization  of  opinion,  this 
idea  is  giving  place  to  a  clearer  insight  into  his  relations  to 
our  interior  spiritual  life  ;  but  this  is  still,  in  substance,  the 
doctrine  of  the  creeds,  as  it  is  the  wide-spread  and  mischiev- 
ous popular  impression. 

Against  all  such  teaching  we  have  vigorously  battled. 
Christ,  we  have  affirmed,  is  God's  provision  for  intrinsic 
human  needs.  This  is  our  providential  message,  amidst  the 
misleading  theories  of  the  Church  —  put  upon  our  lips  by 
every  page  of  the  Bible  which  explains  man's  condition  or 
Christ's  work.  He  is,  we  exist  on  purpose  to  proclaim, 
the  bread  of  life  ;  the  light  of  the  world  ;  the  water  of  which 
if  any  drink  tliey  shall  thirst  no  more  ;  the  rest  and  peace 
of  souls,  xind  charged  with  this  message,  our  business  is 
to  arouse  men,  as  nothing  else  can,  to  understand  that  in  no 
sense  is  he  an  expedient,  or  a  convenience  ;  that  the  need 
for  him  is  vital,  imperative,  universal  ;  that  by  no  possi- 
bility can  anything  be  successfully  substituted  in  his  stead  ; 
that  to  possess  and  appropriate  him  is  to  fulfil  every  condi- 
tion of  highest  life  and  sweetest  joy  ;  and  that  not  to  have 
him,  whoever  one  may  be,  or  whatever  else  one  may  have 
or  know,  is  inevitably  to  lack  that  which  can  alone  give 
the  ripest  character,  the  most  blessed  experience,  the  com- 
pletest  manhood  or  womanhood  to  any  soul ;  and  the  New 
Departure  to  which  we  are  called  in  this  regard  is,  a  new 
and  more  determined  effort  so  to  give  emphasis  to  these 
things,  that,  wherever  our  influence  goes,  it  shall,  to  the 
same  extent,  be  understood  and  felt,  as  never  before,  that 
Christ  is  thus,  intrinsically  and  indispensably,  a  necessity  to 
every  soul. 

That  Christ  is  such  a  necessity  is  proved,  look  for  the 
facts  of  human  experience  where  we  will.  Let  it  suffice 
here  to  ask,  in  what  state  he  found  the  world  when  he  came 
into  it  ?  On  many  accounts,  the  period  was  a  splendid  one  — 
the  culmination  of  the  finest  possibilities,  alike  Jewish  and 
heathen,  in  the  way  of  human  culture  and  civilization;  rich 
in  artistic  taste,  in  external  refinements,  in  purely  intellectual 
ability  and  attainments.  But  spiritually  the  world  was 
empty  and  decaying.  A  frequent  New  Testament  term  to 
represent  its  condition    is   'perish' ;  and   the   word   has  a 


78  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

depth  of  meaning-,  as  thus  applied,  which  has  been  but  feebly- 
apprehended.  Even  the  Jews,  privileged  as  they  had  been, 
were  sunk  into  an  inane  formalism,  out  of  which  all  soul  of 
genuine  emotion  or  service  had  departed.  Those  whose 
only  sustenance  was  in  the  mythologies  or  philosophies  of 
the  time  were  in  a  still  worse  case.  "  The  world  by  wis- 
dom knew  not  God."  Human  reason  and  conscience  had 
demonstrated  their  insufficiency,  unaided,  for  the  highest 
purposes  of  morals  and  religion.  The  moral  vigor  of  the 
race  was  exhausted.  Its  manhood  was  dying  out.  It  had 
no  principle  or  power  competent  to  quicken  it  into  '  new- 
ness of  life.'  Its  recuperative  energies,  its  ability  for  self- 
recovery,  its  spiritual  stamina  were  gone  ;  and  but  for  God's 
succor,  infusing  some  new  life-blood,  some  saving  force  into 
it,  the  world  would  have  rotted  and  collapsed  in  its  utter 
degeneracy  and  corruption. 

That  this  is  the  state  of  things  everywhere  indicated  in 
the  New  Testament,  is  known  to  all  who  read  it.  The 
Apostle  puts  the  sum  of  it  all  into  few  words  when  he  says, 
"  When  we  were  without  strength,"  —  i.  e.,  morally  impo- 
tent, unable  to  help  ourselves,  —  "in  due  time,  Christ  died 
for  the  ungodly."  And  history  outside  the  New  Testament 
only  too  sadly  confirms  its  representations.  Alas  !  we  have 
but  to  turn  over  the  pages  which  tell  of  the  inner  life  of 
Greece  or  Rome,  — have  but  to  go  abroad  among  the 
nations,  and  study  the  spectacle,  morally  and  religiously, 
everywhere  presented,  not  merely  to  find  wickedness,  for 
much  of  that  exists  now  even  in  our  most  Christian  commu- 
nities, and  always  will  exist  until  the  world's  regeneration 
is  accomplished,  but  to  be  shocked  at  the  coarseness  of  the 
debauchery  and  debasement  which  characterized  even  the 
best  life  of  the  most  advanced  peoples,  or  to  be  som'ehow 
furnished  with  impressive  evidence  of  the  world's  need  of  a 
Quickener  and  Redeemer.  Paul's  epitome  (Rom.  i.  21-32  ; 
ii.  1,  17-24)  does  but  graphically  present  the  undeniable 
facts. 

Christ  came  as  the  succor  thus  required  :  God's  remedy 
for  the  decaying  energies  as  well  as  for  the  sin  of  the  world  ; 
the  fresh  life-blood,  to  quicken  ;  "  the  power  of  God  and  the 
wisdom  of  God,"  to  vitalize  and  redeem.     Our  fourth  chap- 


CHRIST   ESSENTIAL.  79 

ter  briefly  glanced  at  what  he  was  as  an  answer  to  then  ex- 
isting needs,  and  at  what  he  has  since  been  in  the  world. 
We  cannot  rationally  explain  the  facts  of  history,  either  in 
their  personal  or  their  social,  in  their  moral  or  their  political 
aspects  and  significance,  except  as  we  confess  his  presence 
and  power.  And  what  has  been  will  be.  The  decadence 
into  which  the  world  ha'd  spiritually  fallen  before  Christ 
came  does  but  show  in  what  state  it  would  now,  or  at  any 
time,  be,  were  he  and  what  he  has  done  withdrawn.  Now, 
or  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  there  is  help  or  hope  for 
souls  only  in  Christ  and  the  life  that  is  in  him  ;  only  in 
Christianity  and  God's  redeeming  energy  in  it. 

There  are  those,  indeed,  who  tell  us  that  the  world  has 
outgrown  Christianity.  As  well  might  they  allege  that  the 
earth  has  outgrown  the  sun,  or  that  human  nature  has 
outgrown  itself.  Stages  and  processes  in  the  progress  of 
our  education  may  be  outgrown  ;  but  do  we,  therefore,  out- 
grow either  the  capacity  to  know,  or  the  need  of  instruction, 
that  we  may  know  ?  In  like  manner,  the  world  may  out- 
grow certain  forms  of  thought  ahoid  God,  and  duty,  and  im- 
mortality ;  but  it  does  not,  therefore,  outgrow  them,  nor  the 
necessity  of  being  informed  concerning  them.  No  doubt 
some  interpretations  of  Christianity,  and  some  accompany- 
ing theories  of  mii'acle  and  inspiration  as  connected  with  it, 
have  been  outgrown.  But  to  outgrow  these,  is  one  thing  ; 
to  outgrow  Christianity,  is  quite  another.  Christianity  is 
founded  in  our  very  nature,  and  miracle  and  inspiration 
were  necessities,  if  Divine  instruction  was  to  be  specially 
communicated,  or  we  were  to  have  any  assurance  of  its 
genuineness  and  truth.  To  outgrow  these,  or  our  need  of 
them,  is,  therefore,  as  impossible  as  it  is  that  our  finite 
nature  shall  outgrow  its  finite  limitations  ;  as  impossible 
as  it  is  that  the  human  understanding  shall  outgrow  its 
need  of  a  superior  illumination,  if  it  is  to  have  any  clear  or 
satisfactory  knowledge  of  spiritual  things  ;  or  that  sorrow 
shall  outgrow  its  need  of  consolation  ;  or  that  tempted  and 
sinful  souls  shall  outgrow  the  need  of  some  help  to  arouse 
and  strengthen,  to  vitalize  and  save  them. 

Science  may  enlarge  the  horizon  of  its  discoveries,  more 
and   more  'reading   God's  thoughts   after  Ilim,'  and  those 


80  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

there  may  be  who  will  imagine  that  Christ  is  to  be  thus 
supplanted, —  some  of  them,  possibly,  that  God  is  to  be 
shown  as  Iiaving  no  longer  a  place  in  the  universe.  Others 
may  talk  vauntingly  of  reason  and  philosophy,  of  the  intui- 
tions of  conscience  and  the  soul,  of  human  progress  and 
development,  insisting  that  these  will  fulfil  every  use  which 
it  has  been  thought  Christianity  is  requisite  to  serve.  All 
this  has  been,  and  is  likely  to  be  again'.  But  so  long 
as  the  human  soul  remains  what  it  is,  and  the  conditions  of 
human  quickening  and  regeneration  abide  what  they  are, 
Christianity  is  the  one  thing  which  cannot  be  outgrown. 
The  world  will  outgrow  theories  in  science,  and  systems  of 
philosophy,  and  forms  of  speculative  thought,  and  inductions 
from  reason  and  conscience  —  for  all  these  it  has,  many 
times,  successively  outgrown  and  cast  aside  ;  but  Christ, 
or  Christianity,  never.  Just  as  soon  may  the  worlds  out- 
grow space.  Suppose  them  possessed  with  the  idea  that  they 
want. more  room;  where  will  they  find  it?  With  equal 
pertinence,  we  may  ask,  what  field  is  there  for  growth  out- 
side the  infinite  scope  of  Christ's  spirit,  or  the  comprehen- 
siveness of  his  plans  ?  What  is  there  beyond  the  universal 
Fatherhood  and  the  universal  Brotherhood,  which  are  the 
sum  of  his  teachings  ?  What  better  than  the  golden  rule 
which  he  lays  down,  —  or  than  the  love  which  he  en- 
joins, —  or  than  the  regard  for  man  which  he  enforces  as 
the  condition  of  acceptance  with  God  ?  What  purer,  more 
unselfish,  more  magnanimous  than  the  chai'acter  on  which 
he  insists  ?  What  tenderer  or  more  inclusive  than  his  sym- 
pathy ?  What  more  ample  than  his  consolations  ?  What 
simpler  than  the  way  to  God  which  he  opens  ?  What  more 
certain  or  more  inspiring  than  his  disclosures  of  the  life 
immortal  ?  What  grander  or  more  encouraging  than  the 
spiritual  enfranchisement  and  redemption  of  our  race  of  which 
he  assures  us  ? 

Those  who  talk  so  much  about  outgrowing  Christ  should 
answer  these  questions,  and  tell  us  how  we  are  to  outgrow 
what  is  so  illimitable  and  universal,  —  tell  us  into  what,  hav- 
ing outgrown  him,  as  they  allege,  they  have  advanced,  or  into 
what,  outgrowing  him,  we  ai'e  to  go.  Let  the  man  who  com- 
bines most  of  intellect  and  heart  unfold  into  his  loftiest  possi- 


CHRIST   ESSENTIAL.  81 

bilities,  and  still,  alike  in  thought  and  affection,  he  will  find 
Christ  immeasurably  above   him,    saying-,  Come   up  higher. 
Or,  let  any  man —  the  wisest,  the  most  '  advanced,'  the  most 
accustomed  to  boast  himself  of  what  he  imagines  is  to  sup- 
plant Christ,  and  thus  to  think  himself  superior  to  any  need 
of  him,    be   stricken   into   helplessness,   or  be   humbled  or 
prostrated  by  pain,  or  sickness,  or  some  great  sorrow  pier- 
cing into  the  quick  of  his  being,  —  by  the  agony  of  bereave- 
ment, —  by  the  awakening  of  conscience  and   a   disturbing 
Bense  of  sin,  —  by  no  matter  what,  so  that  the  shell  of  learned 
or  materialistic  assumption  in  which  he  is  encased  be  broken, 
and  the  bubble  of  his  conceit  be  made  to  collapse,  and  he  be 
brought  to  some  genuine  consciousness  of  what  he  is   and 
of  his  real  needs;   and  amidst  all  that  he  has  been   accus- 
tomed to  think  sufficient — lacking  only  the  Christ  he  has 
flattered   himself  he  has  outgrown  —  he  will   find  himself, 
spiritually,  in  the  condition  of  the  traveller,  who,  famishing 
in  the  desert,  pushed  from  him  the  bag  which  he  had  hoped 
contained  water  or  food,  exclaiming,    "Ah  me  I  it  is  only 
pearls  !  "     Retort  and  crucible,  telescope  and  microscope, 
philanthrophy,    and     philosophy,    reason    and    nature    and 
schemes  for  human  improvement  are  severally  important  in 
their  places  and  for  their  legitimate  uses  ;  but  when  grief 
is  to  be  assuaged,  when  starving  hearts  are  to  be  fed  and 
soothed,  when  a  pitying  God  is  to  be  found,  and  pardon  is 
to  be  assured,  or  when  even  the  least  of  the  spiritual  crav- 
ings which  Christ  fully  satisfies  is  to  be  ministered  to,  these 
things  are  to  the  soul  only  as  so  many  stones  to  one  who  is 
dying  for  bread.      In  these  straits,  whatever  else   one   may 
have  outgrown,  his  experience  will  demonstrate  that  he  has 
not  outgrown  a  need  for  Christ  ;  and  give  but  him  to  this 
humbled,   awakened  man,   brought  down  from  his  inflated 
self-sufficiency,  so  that  he  shall  clasp  his  hand  and  feel  the 
inflowing  of  his  presence,  and  he  will  have,  in  him,  a  sense 
of  God's  nearness  and  pity,  an   assurance  of  God's  helpful 
grace   and   pardon,    an   experience   of  God's  peace,  and   a 
power  lifting  him  above  all '  his  vanity  and  broken-hearted- 
ness  and  sin,  that,  while  enabling  him  to  see  a  new  meaning 
in  every  revelation  of  science  and  every  suggestion  of  phi- 
losophy, in  every  delight  of  human  knowledge  and  every 
6  o  J 


82  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

indication  of  human  progress,  will  put  him  into  spiritual 
heights  and  satisfactions  of  which  he  had  never  dreamed 
before. 

"  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  "  once  said  Peter  to  Christ; 
"  thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  And  this  but  puts 
into  speech  the  universal  outcry  of  our  spiritual  conscious- 
ness, however  or  in  whomsoever  awakened.  The  same  ne- 
cessities of  human  nature  continually  assert  themselves ; 
and,  whatever  changes  or  modifications  may  occur  in  opin- 
ions ahout  him,  or  in  the  interpretation  of  his  words,  Christ, 
"the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever,"  will  be  the  one 
sole  sufficient  answer  to  these  necessities,  so  long  as  men 
have  need  of  God  and  the  assurance  of  His  fatherly  love, 
and  the  conscience  has  need  of  guidance,  and  the  heart  has 
need  of  peace,  and  the  erring  have  need  of  forgiveness,  and 
the  dying  have  need  of  "  the  power  of  an  endless  life." 

It  is  this  fact  that  we  are  called  to  emphasize  and  enforce, 
summoning  men  to  that  practical  appropriation  of  Christ 
which  is  essential  to  their  best  life.  Ignorant,  tempted, 
weak,  suffering,  sinful,  they  are  to  be  made  to  feel  it  is  in 
vain  that  we  turn  to  reason  or  philosophy,  to  science  or  our 
own  intiiitions  ;  in  vain  that  we  invoke  any  power  of  prog- 
ress or  '  development '  in  ourselves.  '  None  but  Christ, 
none  but  Christ,'  reiterated  the  brave  old  martyr,  amidst  the 
tortures  of  the  stake ;  and  so,  attempt  what  substitutes  we 
may,  that  which  is  deepest  in  us  will  compel  every  one  of 
us,  like  him,  at  some  time  to  say.  Christ  is  the  quickening 
spirit,  and  only  he.  He  is  "the  way,  the  truth  and  the 
life;"  "the  light  which  lighteth  every  man  ;  "  "  the  foun- 
tain of  living  water  ;  "  "  the  bread  of  life  ;  "  "  wisdom,  and 
righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and  redemption."  In  our 
weakness  there  is  no  hand  like  his  to  make  us  strong.  On 
the  bed  of  pain,  his  ministries  alone  can  soothe  us  to  rest. 
When  our  hopes  are  shattered,  no  voice  like  his  can  com- 
pose our  disappointment,  or  inspire  us  with  resignation  and 
trust.  When  our  hearts  arc  wounded,  there  is  no  balm  like 
his  to  heal.  Standing  above  o'ur  dead,  only  he  transfigures 
death,  and  shows  us  the  path  of  our  departed  illumined  in 
the  radiance  of  an  immortal  life.  And  in  our  moral  impo- 
tence and  disease,  in  the  waywardness  of  our  wills,  in  our 


CHRIST  ESSENTIAL.  83 

conflicts  with  temptation,  in  our  bondage  to  sin  and  oux-  in- 
subordination to  God,  our  only  sufficient  help,  no  less  surely, 
must  come  from  him.  Onlj'-  at  the  foot  of  his  cross  can 
we  have  that  loathing-  of  sin,  or  be  melted  into  that  condi- 
tion of  penitence  and  consecration,  essential  to  newness  of 
life  ;  and  only  in  contact  with  him,  as  the  medium  of  God's 
regenerative  grace,  can  we  effectively  learn  the  lesson  of 
duty,  or  be  invigorated,  vitalized,  saved.  None  like  him, 
none  but  he,  can  fill  us  with  the  idea  of  excellence,  or  give 
us  '  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God.' 

And  what  is  thus  true  of  individuals  is  equally  true  of  the 
race.  Humanity  is  but  the  aggregate  of  individuals,  and 
there  is  help  or  redemption  for  it  only  where  help  and  redemp- 
tion are  to  be  found  for  the  feeblest  soul  that  makes  part  of 
it.  Nations  and  tlie  race  can  be  lifted  up  only  as  individuals 
are -lifted  up.  Why  is  Turkey  'the  sick  man'  of  Europe? 
Why,  mainly,  but  that  Christianity  has  not  been,  for  these 
many  centuries,  an  element  in  the  thought  and  life  of  the 
people  ?  And  what  is  it  that,  by  common  consent,  as  we 
watch  the  wondrous  change  in  progress  in  Japan,  is  so  as- 
suring us  of  a  nobler  destiny  for  that  hitherto  exclusive 
nation?  What  but  the  indications  that  Christianity  —  first, 
in  the  ideas  and  usages  of  our  Christian  civilization,  and 
then  thi'ough  the  introduction  of  the  Bible,  and  as  a  trans- 
forming faith  —  is  to  become  a  power  in  minds  and  hearts 
there  ?  Christ  is  the  one  answer  to  the  universal  need.  In 
him  alone  the  conditions  for  the  world's  spiritual  cure  and 
elevation  anywhere  are  fulfilled.  "  Without  him  we  can 
do  nothing."  Human  wisdom,  and  the  pride  of  reason,  and 
the  vanity  of  '  culture,'  and  the  pompous  self-sufficiency  of 
men  unwilling  to  acknowledge  their  dependence,  may  dream 
their  dreams,  and  propose  their  plans,  for  the  amelioration 
of  society,  and  the  regeneration  of  the  world,  without  him  ; 
but  they  will  prove,  every  one  of  them,  like  the  empty 
lamps  of  the  virgins  —  prove  only  dreams  and  failures  ;  and 
from  them  all  the  world  must  turn  at  length  to  Christ : 
"  Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other,  for  there  is  none 
other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we 
must  be  saved." 

In  the  power  of  this   truth  we   are  to   make  ourselves 


84  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

morally  mighty ;  and  only  as  we  become  possessed  and  in- 
stinct with  this  power,  as  ministers,  as  a  people,  as  an 
organized  and  evangelizing  Church,  whatever  else  we  may 
have  or  be,  is  there  any  positive  and  saving  work,  or  any 
desirable  Christian  future,  for  us.  In  this  be  strong,  is  the 
one  word  that  comes  from  all  God's  voices  to  us. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SIN. 

It  is  the  penalty  of  all  reform  that  those  who  wage  it, 
opposing  one  error  or  abuse,  necessarily  incur  the  risk  of 
swinging  into  another.  Perhaps  this  has  had  no  more  strik- 
ing illustration  than  is  furnished  in  the  rebound  from  the 
exaggerated  doctrines  of  the  sacrificial  theology  concerning 
sin,  —  as  to  its  infinite  enormity,  on  the  one  hand,  and  as  to 
the  vindictive  and  horrible  punishment  by  which  only  can 
God  duly  attest  His  hatred  of  it,  on  the  other.  Not  to  enter 
into  the  broad  field  thus  opened,  however,  it  is  enough  now  to 
ask  whether  we,  as  a  people,  have  not  shared  in  this  extreme 
rebound.  Arraigning  and  controverting  these  doctrines,  have 
we  not  had  speculations  among  us,  and  even  definitely  de- 
clared conclusions,  the  inevitable  effect  of  which,  logically, 
has  been  either  to  make  sin  an  inconsiderable  alfair,  a 
slight  disturbance  which  is  to  be  beneficently  overruled,  or 
to  deny  that  there  is  really  any  such  thing  ?  Have  there 
not  been  periods  in  our  history,  indeed,  when  such  theories 
have  to  no  small  extent  determined  the  burden  of  our  pul- 
pits, and  the  thought  of  our  people  ?  And  do  they  not 
yet  quite  largely  mingle  in  the  opinions  that  prevail 
among   us  ? 

But  are  such  theories  morally  healthful  ?  Are  they  favor- 
able to  quickness  of  conscience,  or  to  a  propelling  and  inex- 
tinguishable sense  of  obligation?  Do  they  tend  to  distress 
us  with  a  rebuking  consciousness  of  the  guilt  of  sin,  or  to 
induce  humiliation  and  penitence  on  account  of  it  ?  In  few 
words,  are  they  fitted  spiritually  to  arouse  and  stimulate 
anybody?  to  fill  anybody  with  a  loathing  and  abhorrence 
of  sin  ?  to  move  anybody  to  feel  himself  a  sinner,  and  to 
cry  out  with  Paul,  "  0  wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ? "  or  to  stir  be- 
lievers  or  churches  to   zeal  for  the   conversion  of  souls  ? 

85 


86  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

These   arc  important  questions  :    is  it  not  time  that  they 
should  be  seriously  pondered  ? 

Paul  speaks  of  sin  as  "exceeding  sinful":  is  it  so? 
Conscience  recognizes  force  in  the  word  ought,  and  there- 
fore recognizes  the  desert  of  goodness,  and  the  demerit  of 
sin  :  is  conscience  thus  intimating  facts,  or  only  suggesting 
phantasms  ?  The  Bible  is  a  continuous  rebuke  of  sin,  de- 
nouncing God's  retributions  upon  it,  expostulating  against 
it,  and  pleading  that  we  will  abandon  it  as  not  only  a  curse, 
but  as  in  itself  a  heinous  wrong  :  is  the  Bible,  in  all  this, 
imposing  upon  us  by  using  words  without  meaning  ?  These 
inquiries  touch  points  that  are  vital  to  all  that  bears  the 
name  of  moral  science,  and  therefore  vital  to  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  character  and  life.  Of  course,  I  am  not  ignorant  of 
the  answers  made  to  them  on  behalf  of  the  views  of  sin  at 
which  they  are  aimed.  But  with  these  answers,  and  the 
metaphysics  they  involve,  I  have  now  no  concern.  Such 
metaphysics,  splitting  hairs,  throwing  dust,  pressing  half- 
truths  as  if  they  were  the  whole,  or  the  side  of  a  truth  with- 
out regard  to  its  relations,  proportions,  or  qualifications, 
using  words  that  keep  their  deeming  to  the  ear,  but  lose  or 
change  their  meaning  to  the  sense,  and  eliminating  the  very 
life  out  of  every  fundamental  moral  idea,  have  been  our 
bane.  It  is  time  that  we  were  whoUj''  emancipated  from 
them.  I  shall  be  tempted  into  no  discussion  with  them 
here.  I  propose  only  to  deal  with  the  subject  practically, 
as  it  meets  us  on  the  pages  of  the  Bible,  in  our  unperverted 
consciousness,  and  in  the  instinctive  judgments  of  conscience 
and  common  sense.  I  have  a  conviction  —  the  result  of 
years  of  observation,  and  that,  for  some  time  past,  has  been 
every  year  growing  deeper  and  stronger  —  that  we  have 
widely  failed  to  feel  and  enforce  the  enormity  and  "  exceed- 
ing sinfulness  "  of  sin.  Not  that  we  have  been  indifferent 
to  moral  obligation,  for,  as  the  fact,  no  people  have  been 
more  keenly  alive  to  such  obligation,  or  more  observant  of 
it,  on  its  human  side ;  not  that  we  have  not  had  much  sen- 
sitiveness, much  faithful  preaching,  and  much  sincere  shame 
and  contrition  on  account  of  sin  ;  but  that  we  have  not,  as 
a  people,  been  pervaded  by  any  such  deep  and  remorseful 
sense  as  the   Bible  demands   of  what  it  is   as   an   offence 


SIN.  87 

against  God,  and  thus  of  what  it  is  to  be  a  sinner,  an 
unawakened  and  spiritually  thoughtless  soul,  in  His  pure 
si<i-ht.  We  have  never  said,  or  acted  as  if  we  believed, 
that  sin  is  right.  Very  far  from  it.  But  we  have  quite 
extensively  dallied  with  it,  iheoreticalhj ,  as  if  it  were  not 
very  wrong ;  and,  naturally,  the  effect  of  such  theoretical 
dalliance  has  been  a  proportionally  languid  sense  of  the 
guilt  of  sin,  a  proportionally  feeble  realization  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  repentance,  and  a  corresponding  indifierence  to 
the  obligations  which  require  a  pronounced  religious  life. 

Under  these  circumstances,  I  am  satisfied,  we  need  a 
changed  style  of  thinking  on  this  whole  subject.  A  pro- 
founder  sense  of  the  absolute  wrong  of  sin  —  not  only  in  its 
grosser  forms,  but  in  all  its  forms,  even  in  its  lightest 
shadings,  a  keener  consciousness  of  guilt  on  account  of  it, 
and  a  deeper  and  more  thoroughly  prostrating  conviction  of 
the  solemnity  and  imperativeness  of  the  calls  which  are 
summoning  us  to  penitence  and  consecration  to  God,  are,  I 
believe,  among  the  conditions  upon  which  alone  is  there  for 
us  the  increase  of  spiritual  power  which  we  so  much  desire  ; 
nor,  I  am  confident,  can  our  possible  destiny  as  a  Church  be 
at  all  fulfilled  except  as  we  at  once  and  henceforth  take 
higher  ground  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to  occupy  in 
these  particulars,  and  thus  commit  ourselves  to  a  New 
Departure,  theoretically  and  practically,  in  this  regard. 

A  theory  was,  years  ago,  extensively  current  among  us, 
which,  happily,  is  now  obsolete,  to  the  efiect  that  sin  is 
exclusively  of  the  body,  not  of  the  soul  ;  that,  amidst  all 
the  contaminations  of  wickedness  and  evil  indulgence,  the 
soul  remains  unpolluted,  the  pure  image  of  God,  no  party 
in  the  evil,  as  a  diamond,  imbedded  in  the  mire,  in  no  way 
partakes  in  itself  of  the  surrounding  defilement.  This 
theory  was,  and  is,  so  superficial,  as  well  as  so  opposed  — 
as  it  seems  to  me  —  to  every  dictate  of  common  sense  as 
applied  to  the  subject,  that  it  could  not  retain  its  hold  on 
intelligent  minds  when  even  the  least  degree  of  moral  and 
intellectual  science,  or  psychological  knowledge,  began  to 
assert  itself.  But  it  was  a  mischievous  element  of  our 
denominational  life,  sO  far  as  it  ever  did  prevail ;  and  if  it 
anywhere  finds  belief  now,  it  finds  belief  only  to  the  same 


88  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

mischievous  effect.  It  is  hardly  a  doctrine  to  be  in  these 
days  seriously  argued  against ;  and  yet,  should  there  chance 
to  be  those  anywhere  still  addicted  to  it  on  the  supposition 
that  Paul  (Rom.  vii.)  teaches  it,  I  must  beg  them  to  consider 
these  weighty  words  of  Dr.  Ballou,  transposing  two  or  three 
of  them  at  the  outset :  — 

"  It  Avoulcl  be  a  gross  mistake  to  suppose  that  St.  Paul  confines  sin 
to  the  body  alone,  or  regards  the  mind,  the  spirit,  of  man  as  incorrupt. 
He  means  nothing  of  this  kind,  even  when  he  says  that  he  delights 
in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man,  while  the  law  in  his  members 
wars  against  the  law  of  his  mind,  bringing  him  into  captivity  to  the 
law  of  sin.  Indeed,  the  mere  body,  or  flesh,  strictly  speaking,  can 
never  sin,  though  it  may  work  temptations.  When  taken  by  itself,  it 
is  neither  intelligent  nor  conscious,  and  is  as  incapable  of  moral  trans- 
gression as  any  other  unintelligent  mass  of  matter.  And  even  when 
imited  with  mind,  as  it  is  in  every  rational  person,  it  is  the  mind  which 
feels,  knows,  and  acts  through  the  body  as  its  instrument.  It  is  the 
mind  which  recognizes  motives,  controls  impulses,  or  yields  to  them  ; 
it  is  the  mind  which  forms  within  itself  the  purpose,  whether  good  or 
bad,  and  then  executes  it  in  overt  acts,  by  means  of  the  liody.  The 
mind  is  the  real  agent ;  and  it  is  the  mind  alone  that  is  guilty  and 
condemned,  in  the  case  of  sin.  If  it  should  be  said  that  this  contra- 
dicts St.  Paul's  assertion,  that  with  the  mind  he  served  the  law  of  God, 
but  with  the  flesh  the  law  of  sin,  —  we  will,  for  the  argument's  sake, 
grant,  what  is  not  strictly  true,  that  there  is  a  contradiction  in  words  ; 
but  is  there  any  in  the  meaning  ?  Will  any  one  contend,  seriously, 
that,  in  serving  the  law  of  sin,  the  mind  takes  no  part,  neither  pre- 
meditates, nor  desires,  nor  balances  motives,  nor  comes  to  a  determina- 
tion, nor  wills,  nor  puts  forth  the  eff'ort ;  but  that  all  this  is  done  by 
about  a  hundred  or  two  pounds  of  mere  bone,  flesh  and  blood,  without 
any  co-operation  of  the  mental  power  ?  The  utter  absurdity  of  the 
supposition  ought,  of  itself,  to  be  a  sufficient  guard  against  such  a 
misapprehension  of  the  passages  referred  to.  But  if  this  be  not  enough 
to  satisfy  every  one,  the  matter  will  be  put  at  rest  by  appealing  to  St. 
Paul's  habitual  recognition  of  corrupt,  defiled,  lustful,  reprobate,  filthy, 
vain,  unrenewed  minds  and  spirit  in  man.  The  other  writers  of  the 
New  Testament  agree  with  St.  Paul  on  this  point.  St.  James  says, 
'  The  spirit  that  dwelleth  within  us,  lusteth  to  envy.'  ...  St.  John 
says,  *  Believe  not  every  spirit ;  but  try  the  spirits,  whether  they  be  of 
God.'  ... 

"  Neither  can  the  blind  appetites  and  propensities  of  the  body  sin. 
The  farthest  they  can  go  in  this  direction,  is,  to  operate  on  the  mind  as 
impulses  or  incitements  to  wrong.  If  the  mind  does  not  consent  to  an 
improjjcr  indulgence  of  them,  there  is  no  sin,  how  strongly  soever  they 
rage;  if  it  does  consent,  there  is  sin,  how  slightly  soever  they  be  felt.  ... 
To  use  the  phrenological  nomenclature,  ...  is  it  the  blind  propensity, 
say  of  destructiveness,  or  of  amativeness,  that  is  conscience-smitten, 


SIN.  89 

struck  with  remorse,  made  wretched,  and  that  sometimes  repents  ?  or  is  it 
the  person,  he  who  indulged  these  impulses  unlawfully  ?  Which  of  the 
two  is  it  that  commits  the  sin,  and  suffers  the  consequences  ?  It  is 
not  the  impulses  that  are  either  good  or  bad,  except  as  means.  There 
must  be  an  intelligent  person  to  whom  they  belong,  and  whose  mind, 
whose  will,  directs  them,  before  they  can  have  any  moral  character  ; 
and  he  alone  is  either  the  agent,  or  the  responsible  subject.  ...  It  is 
evident  [then],  that,  by  the  flesh,  the  body,  its  members,  &c.,  Paul 
means  the  domination  of  the  senses,  in  the  mind,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
spiritual  development  of  our  nature.  .  .  .  These  senses  always  lie  in 
contact  with  the  mind,  with  the  will  ;  and  they  communicate  to  it 
impulses,  which  must  be  either  controlled  or  yielded  to,  by  some 
exertion  of  the  mental  power.  ...  If  the  person  voluntarily  follows 
these  impulses  too  far,  or  neglects  to  restrain  them  within  their  proper 
limits,  then  sin  begins,  and  not  till  then, — begins  and  continues  in 
his  will,  or  governing  faculty."  * 

Leaving  the  notion  thus  disposed  of,  out  of  the  case, 
there  are  two  othei-  views  which  have  largely  divided  our 
church-opinion  upon  this  subject  of  sin:  1.  That  which 
assigns  sin  and  every  other  thought,  or  aim,  or  act  of  man 
directly  to  God ;  and  2.  That  which,  though  not  directly 
charging  sin  to  Him,  represents  God  as  complacent  and 
quite  well-satisfied  with  it,  because  He  can  so  easily,  and 
will  so  certainly,  overrule  it  for  good.  Both  these  views  are 
to  be  deprecated,  I  believe  —  as  grave  errors,  to  be  re- 
nounced, and  especially  as  serious  hinderances,  to  be  cast 
aside. 

I.  The  first  strikes  at  the  root  of  all  moral  verities,  and 
transforms  the  world  into  a  stupendous  machine,  in  which 
men  and  women,  divested  of  all  self-determining  power,  are 
simply  serving  the  uses  of  so  many  wheels  and  springs. 
What  though  it  is  insisted  on  as  the  logical  sequence  of  the 
predicate  that  God  reigns,  and  is  alleged  to  be  the  inevitable 
conclusion  if  God  is  to  be  at  all  recognized  as  a  factor  in 
human  affairs  ?  The  premises  are  unquestionable  ;  but  the 
conclusion  does  not  follow.  The  error  is  in  so  emphasizing 
God  as  to  ignore  man,  and  in  so  affirming  the  Divine  Will  as 
a  factor  in  human  aflairs  as  to  make  the  human  will  nothing 
but  a  name.  That  the  Divine  Will  is  a  factor  in  all  human 
affairs,  no  one  who   believes   in   a  Divine  Will  doubts  ;  but 

*  Universalist  Quarterly,  Vol  ii.,  pp.  416,  417,  418,  421. 


90  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

because  there  is  a  Divine  Will,  is  there,  therefore,  no  human 
will,  except  in  terms  ?  Or,  because  God  is  sovereign,  has 
man,  as  a  distinct  and  responsible  agent,  no  existence? 
•  The  sovereignty  of  God  is,  doubtless,  the  foundation  on 
which  all  theology  must  build,  or  be,  finally,  no  theology. 
Either  there  is  a  God,  God  over  all  possible  contingencies, 
or  there  is  no  God.  But  man,  in  his  place,  is  as  real  as 
God  in  His  ;  and  to  construct  a  theological  system  that  is 
also  an  ethical  system  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  recognizing 
the  play  of  moral  forces  and  ground  for  praise  or  blame, 
man  must  be  assigned  a  separate,  and  in  a  sense,  independent 
individuality,  and  must  be  so  reasoned  from,  as  well  as  God. 
Alike  the  Bible  and  our  own  consciousness  attest  that  we 
have,  each  of  us,  such  a  distinct  personality ;  and  if  there 
is  anything  I  can  be  said  to  know,  I  know  that,  within 
certain  limitations,  I  am  the  master  of  my  own  actions,  and 
therefore  accountable  for  them.  Every  moral  instinct  of  my 
being  is  a  lie,  if  it  is  not  so. 

But  the  theory  before  us  denies  me  any  such  real  self- 
hood, and  resolves  me  and  everything  pertaining  to  me  into 
God.  All  I  do,  or  will,  or  think,  it  avers,  is  God's  will, 
act,  or  thought,  expressing  itself  through  me,  as  the  click 
of  the  telegraph  is  the  expression  of  the  electric  fluid  behind 
it.  Where,  then,  is  my  will  ?  or  my  individuality  ?  or  my 
accountability  ?  Not  one  of  these  attributes  can,  in  any 
actual  moral  sense,  be  alleged  of  me,  except  as  it  can  just 
as  well  be  alleged  of  the  crank  of  a  steam  engine,  or  of  a 
falling  stone.  However  the  word  may  be  used,  there  is  in 
fact  no  such  thing. 

Nor  is  this  the  worst  of  it.  In  thus  stripping  us  of  all 
power  of  self-determination,  and  giving  the  lie  to  the  Bible 
and  our  ineradicable  sense  of  freedom  and  accountability, 
this  theoi'y  also  strips  God  of  His  glory  as  a  moral  governor. 
He  is,  if  this  be  true,  only  an  infinite  mechanic,  or  the 
master  of  a  stupendous  puppet-show,  using  souls  as  so  many 
passive  pieces  of  intelligence,  precisely  as  a  machinist  uses 
his  pieces  of  brass  and  iron,  or  as  the  manager  of  an 
automatic  exhibition  directs  the  movements  of  his  manikins 
by  his  touch  of  the  wires,  or  his  adjustment  of  the  springs. 
Give  whatever  name  you  please  to  such  a  system,  or  call  the 


SIN.  91 

means  by  which  God  so  acts  in  us,  or  through  us,  determin- 
ing what  we  shall  do,  motives,  influences,  or  whatever  you 
will,  looking  beneath  words  to  things,  the  purely  mechanical 
nature  of  the  arrangement  is  manifest.  We  are  clearly  not 
moral  beings, — only  so  many  lay  figures,  curiously  con- 
structed to  think  ourselves  self-acting,  but  going  through 
our  appointed  motions,  obeying  or  disobeying,  reverencing 
God,  or  blaspheming  and  defying  Him,  loving  and  serving 
man,  or  trampling,  defrauding,  murdering  him,  as  God 
adjusts  and  injects  the  mechanical  forces  over  which  lie 
presides,   and  in  the  midst  of  which  He  is  all. 

I  hold  that  these  several  consequences,  not  to  mention 
others,  place  the  theory  which  necessitates  them  outside  the 
pale  of  legitimate  argument,  as  any  hypothesis  which  con- 
travenes known  and  accepted  facts  is  universally  conceded 
to  be  no  subject  of  argument.  Treating  the  subject  on 
common-sense  principles,  in  any  fair  use  of  words  in  their 
ordinary  meaning,  these  consequences  are  inevitable  and 
undeniable,  if  any  result  in  logic  or  mathematics  can  be 
said  to  be  inevitable  or  undeniable  ;  and  in  view  of  them, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  ask  what  there  is  from  which  evidence 
can  come,  that  does  not  protest  against  such  a  view  of 
God's  relations  to  human  life,  so  issuing  in  our  non-responsi- 
bility, when,  stripped  of  all  its  metaphysical  verbalisms  and 
entanglements,  .it  is  fairly  and  nakedly  considered  ?  Espe- 
cially should  it  be  noted  as  the  final  fact  which  closes  the 
case  against  this  theory,  that  it  necessarily  invalidates  all 
moral  distinctions,  and  renders  all  action,  at  bottom,  of 
precisely  the  same  quality.  "  Well,  then,"  once  asked  a 
brother  minister  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  advocates 
of  this  philosophy,  at  the  close  of  a  long  debate  upon  it, 
"  to  sum  up  the  whole  matter  in  few  words,  virtue  and 
vice,  if  I  understand  you,  are  only  names  which  we  give  to 
different  phases  of  human  activity,  that,  in  their  nature,  are 
essentially  the  same,  inasmuch  as  both  are  equally  neces- 
sitated ?  "  "  Yes,"  frankly  responded  the  disputant.  And 
to  this  conclusion,  disguise,  or  seek  to  evade  it,  as  its  advo- 
cates may,  the  argument  at  last  irresistibly  conducts  us. 

And  these  things  being  so,  is  it  not  clear  what  the  prac- 
tical influence  of  such  speculations  must  be,  and  that  if,  as 


92  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

a  Church,  we  are  to  have  any  spiritual  vitality  and  power, 
we  must  be  rid  of  them  ?  Grant  that  there  have  been,  and 
are,  those  holding,  or  professing  to  hold,  this  philosophy,  in 
whom  conscience  and  an  invincible  integrity  have  been 
stronger  than  their  dangerous  theory  ;  grant  even  that 
there  have  been  those  holding  some  such  theory,  who,  in  an 
exalted  consciousness  of  God's  instant  and  constant  pres- 
ence, and  under  the  inspiration  and  guidance  of  the  re- 
ligious principle  thus  glowing  and  regnant  within  them, 
have  so  far  risen  superior  to  the  natural  tendency  of  such 
a  method  of  thinking  as  to  be  among  the  Avorld's  examples 
of  a  rugged  and  heroic  virtue,  can  there  be  any  reasonable 
doubt  as  to  what  its  natural  tendency  is  ?  Really  taken  as 
a  direct  and  positive  clement  into  life,  must  it  not  impair 
the  sense  of  responsibility,  lessen  the  strenuousness  of  re- 
ligious motive,  and  leave  one  at  the  mercy  of  impulse,  im- 
pression, or  inclination,  however  it  may  prompt  ?  In  the 
nature  of  things,  if  I  actually  live  out  of  this  philosophy, 
testing  myself  by  its  standards,  can  I,  however  much  a 
sinner,  feel  guilty,  or  be  moved  to  prostrate  myself  before 
God,  asking  His  forgiveness,  or  be  stimulated  to  self-denial, 
or  struggle,  or  prayerful  consecration  and  work  ?  Believing 
that  there  is  no  separate,  personal  /,  and  that  what  seems 
to  be  me  is  only  God  behind  me,  can  I  feel  merit,  or  demerit, 
do  what  I  may  ?  Or,  if  some  such  feeling  will  assert  itself 
in  me,  in  spite  of  my  philosophy,  can  I  do  otherwise  than 
laugh  at  it  as  a  curious  sensation  which  has  no  basis,  or  jus- 
tification ? 

II.  The  second  of  the  two  theories  adverted  to,  though 
not  so  fatally  mischievous  as  the  first  is  fitted  to  be,  is 
nevertheless  open  to  much  the  same  condemnation.  We 
cannot  believe  that  God  is  complacent,  or  satisfied,  in  view 
of  sin,  and  at  the  same  time  feel  very  seriously  troubled 
ourselves  because  of  it.  Inevitably,  as  the  human  mind 
operates,  and  under  the  laAV  of  influence  to  which  we  are 
subject,  attributing  such  complacency,  or  satisfaction  to 
Him,  we  shall  more  or  less  share  in  it,  and  our  repugnance 
at  sin  and  our  feeling  of  guilt  on  account  of  it  will  be  cor- 
respondingly abated.  This  being  so,  no  one  can  affirm 
such  complacency,  or  satisfaction,  on  God's  part,  or  even 


SIN.  93 

entertain  it  as  a  possible  hypothesis  in  respect  to  sin,  with- 
out moral  peril.  There  is  moral  safety,  because  there  is 
any  poignant  self-condemnation  on  account  of  sin,  and  any 
abhorrence  of  it,  for  us,  only  as  we  see  it  condemned  and 
abhorrent  in  God's  sight. 

And  if  God  be  the    Infinite    Iloliness,  how    can  sin  be 
otherwise  than  abhorrent  to  Him  ?     Being  sin,  —  supposino* 
it  to   be,  according  to  the   Bible  and  the  uni%'ersal  moral 
consciousness,   man's   act  or  intention,   and  not  His   own 
through   man   as  an  automaton,  it  is   a  denial  of  Ilim,  or 
rebellion  against  Ilim,  aiming  to  pull  down  what  He  would 
build   up,  and  to  build   up  what  He  would  destroy.     How, 
then,  except  by  denying  himself,    can  He  be  satisfied  or 
complacent  with  it  ?     Looking  upon  His  finished  creation, 
indeed,  if  we  may  credit  the  record,  He  "  saw  everything 
that   He    had    made,"    and    pronounced    it    "very  good." 
This,   necessarily,   was  a  satisfaction   with  man  as  a  part 
of  the  creation,  and  this,  too,  notwithstanding  a  clear  fore- 
sight of  his  sinfulness  ;  but  the  satisfaction  was  not  with 
sin,  —  only  with  man  in  spite  of  sin,  in  view  of  the  sublime 
destiny  he  would  ultimately  fulfil.     With  sin,  then  as  now 
and  always,  God  was  in  essential  antagonism.     Everything 
in  His  nature  is  opposed  to  it.     Every  law  He  has  ordained 
is  arrayed,  eternally  and  inexorably,  against  it.     It  is  the 
one  element  in  His  universe  against  which  He  is  everywhere 
in  conflict,  and  for   the  prevention  and  expulsion  of  which 
He  is  perpetually  at  work.     His  enmity  to  it  is  thus  shown 
to  be  absolute,  unappeasable,  —  something  that  cannot  bo 
qualified,  or  cease,  except  as  He  becomes  himself  qualified, 
or   ceases  to  be  what  He  is.     There  is  no  significance  or 
worth  in  the  Bible,  if  it  is  not  so.     If  it  be  not  so,  there  is 
no  meaning  in  language,   no  such  thing  as  duty  ;  all  the 
invitations  and  threatenings  of  God's  Word,   the  life   and 
cross  of  Christ,  and  all  that  God  has  done  and  is  doing  os- 
tensibly to  persuade  us  against  sin,  or  to  save  us  from  it, 
are  but  so  many  pretences  ;  the  voice  of  conscience  and  the 
sense  of  responsibility  are  deceits  ;  we  are  not  moral  agents, 
but  things,   without  personal  centre  or  value  ;    and  in  all 
His  so-called  moral  dealings  with  us,  God  is  but  playing  an 
empty  game  of  make-believe,  or  a  monstrous  masquerade. 


94  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

These  being  the  facts,  I  submit  that  no  man,  or  company 
of  men,  is  at  liberty  to  theorize,  or  to  speculate  in  any  way, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  implicate  God  with  sin,  or  to  com- 
promise this  hostility  to  it  so  intrinsic  and  unappeasable  in 
Him.  Here,  unfortunately,  is  the  perversion  to  which  a  be- 
neiicent  interpretation  of  the  universe  is  —  we  may  almost 
say,  unavoidably  —  liable.  Men  easily  fail  to  discriminate. 
They  are  prone  to  overlook  conditions  and  qualifications,  and 
to  jump  hastily  at  conclusions.  Because  we  are  assured  that 
all  things  are  pervaded  with  a  merciful  meaning,  and  that 
even  sin  is  to  be  somehow  made,  in  spite  of  itself,  to  sub- 
serve ultimate  purposes  of  good,  far  too  many  leap  straight- 
way to  the  inference  that  sin  is  not,  then,  so  very  bad,  or, 
at  most,  that  while  a  present  curse,  it  is  only  the  negative 
side  of  good,  —  good,  like  sorrow,  with  its  reverse  side 
towards  us.  Against  this  perversion,  or  any  approach  to 
it,  all  who  reach  the  sublime  assurance  of  the  ultimate  tri- 
umph of  good  have  need  carefully  to  guard  ;  and  it  is  be- 
cause of  a  failure  didy  to  guard  against  this  that  we  have, 
so  widely,  the  idea  of  God's  complacency,  or  satisfaction 
with  sin. 

Is  it  asked,  how  it  happens,  conceding  God's  sovereignty, 
that  sin  is  in  the  world,  if  He  is  not  satisfied  that  it  should 
exist  ?  For  myself,  I  have  an  answer  entirely  sufficient 
for  my  own  thought ;  but  it  has  no  place  here.  Admit,  if 
the  reader  pleases,  that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  answer 
the  question  except  by  saying  that  God  is  satisfied  with  sin. 
I  hold  that  answer  forbidden  by  what  God  is,  as  well  as  by 
the  moral  consequences  which  inevitably  follow.  It  is  a 
contradiction  in  terms,  and  as  such,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  inadmissible  — just  as  much  as  to  say  that  God  can 
lie.  God's  intrinsic  and  invincible  antagonism  to  sin,  which 
is  but  another  name  for  His  unshadowed  Holiness,  is  not  to 
be  impeached  because  of  the  limitation  of  our  powers.  We 
impugn  established  human  integrity  only  upon  the  most 
direct  and  indubitable  proof,  however  difficult  we  may  find  it 
to  explain  unfavorable  appearances,  because,  as  we  say, 
what  the  man  is  absolutely  interdicts  suspicion,  so  long  as 
demonstration  fails  to  warrant  it.  Shall  we  count  God's 
character   as   something   to   be  less  carefully  considered  ? 


SIN.  "^  95 

It  is  often  asked,  Why  does  God  permit  so  much  suffering, 

—  i.  e.,  why  has  Ho  chosen  a  system  into  which  it  so  ne- 
cessarily enters,  if  He  is  not  pleased  to  see  the  suffering-  ? 
and,  however  we  may  say,  and  find  comfort  in  saying,  that 
He  proposes  to  overrule  it,  we  can  give  no  answer  that 
goes  to  the  bottom  of  the  problem,  and  absolutely  solves  it. 
Do  we,  therefore,  say  that  God  is  pleased  to  see  His  chil- 
dren suffer  ?  The  fact  that  He  is  Love  forbids.  Hence, 
we  say.  We  cannot  answer,  —  and  are  content  to  trust 
where  we  cannot  see.      So  with  numerous  other  questions 

—  unanswerable  except  by  impeaching  God's  character.  We 
say.  Any  such  answer  in  effect  destroys  God,  and,  being 
thus  a  self-evident  contradiction,  becomes,  of  course,  ex- 
cluded from  the  case.  And  this  is  what  we  are  bound  to 
say  concerning  the  question  before  us,  even  granting  that  it 
transcends  our  reply  except  on  the  hypothesis  named.  It  is 
to  be  held  as  a  fundamental  principle  that  no  answer  to  it 
can  be  entertained  which,  so  much  as  by  the  remotest  impli- 
cation, impinges  on  God's  essential  and  irrepressible  antag- 
onism to  sin,  or  authorizes  us  to  think  it  something  concern- 
ing which  any  other  feeling  than  loathing  and  abhorrence 
is,  under  any  circumstances,  or  in  any  sense,  possible  in 
Him,  or  allowable  in  us.  If  there  be  any  meaning  in  the 
Bible,  if  any  reality  in  Christ,  if  any  significance  in  our 
own  moral  instincts,  if  any  holiness  or  truth  in  God,  sin 
is  an  evil  —  in  itself,  wholly  so,  an  abomination  in  God's 
sight,  and  that  should  be  an  abomination  in  ours,  —  our 
curse  now  and  always,  the  enemy  of  God  and  all  good. 
There  are  no  moral  facts,  if  these  are  not  among  them  ;  and 
if  they  are  facts  at  all,  they  are  facts  to  which  too  much 
emphasis  cannot  be  given.  There  is  no  danger  that  we 
shall  think  too  seriously  of  sin,  or  regard  it  as  more  mon- 
strous, or  appalling,  than  it  is,  if  we  but  remember  that  God 
is  God,  and  has  told  us  that  it  must  cease.  The  danger,  as 
has  been  intimated,  is  altogether  in  the  other  direction  ;  and 
for  the  honor  of  God  and  our  own  moral  safety  we  cannot 
too  scrupulously,  or  too  constantly,  watch  against  it. 

To  the  convictions  thus  set  forth  as  to  the  nature  and 
tendency  of  the  hypotheses  thus  passed   in  review,  it  is 


96  OUE  NEW  DEPARTUEE. 

believed,  a  large  majority  of  our  Churcli  lias  substantially 
arrived.  Differences  of  statement  —  possibly  differences  of 
conception  on  some  points  —  there  may  be  ;  but,  in  princi- 
ple and  general  conclusion,  we  are  fundamentally  one.  We 
are  agreed  in  aflSrming  the  wrong  of  sin,  and  the  need  of 
repentance.  Wc  stand  together  on  Paul's  axiom  that  sin  is 
'  exceeding  sinful.'  We  unite  in  saying  that,  if  the  doc- 
trine that  God  is  the  author  of  sin,  or  that  He  is  satisfied 
with  it,  or  that  it  is,  in  His  sight,  —  or  may  be  in  ours,  —  a 
thing  of  small  moment,  were  Universalism,  we  could  not  be 
Universalists  ;  and  that,  if  Universalism  required  or  author- 
ized anybody  to  believe  and  enforce  any  one  of  these  predi- 
cates, we  should  be  compelled  to  denounce  and  oppose  it  as 
a  most  pernicious  error.  We  declare,  at  every  opportunity, 
that  we  have  no  sympathy  with  any  theology  which  impli- 
cates God  in  sin,  and  no  faith  in  any  philosophy  of  life 
which  represents  it  as  a  seeming  evil,  but  an  actual  good. 
We  hold  sin  to  be  wrong,  absolutely,  unchangeably.  It 
not  only  seems  wrong,  we  aver ;  it  is  wrong,  —  wrong  not 
only  in  man's  sight,  but  even  more  in  God's  sight ;  a  viola- 
tion of  principles  of  rectitude  ingrained  in  the  nature  of 
things,  and,  so  long  as  it  lasts,  a  canker  in  souls,  and  a  blot 
upon  the  otherwise  fair  face  of  the  universe. 

Having,  then,  reached  these  convictions,  should  we  not 
vigorously  —  more  vigorously  than  ever  before  —  enforce 
them  ?  If,  as  we  have  been  circumstanced,  in  the  ardor  of 
our  polemics,  our  attention  has  —  almost  unavoidably  — 
been  to  some  extent  diverted  from  them,  should  we  not 
more  assiduously  consider  how  Christ  and  the  apostles  dealt 
with  this  subject,  and,  following  them  as  our  models,  hence- 
forth not  only  affirm  —  as  we  always  have  affirmed  —  that 
sin  will  surely  be  punished,  but  proclaim  its  reality  and 
heinousness  ;  seek  to  arouse  men  to  a  sense  of  guilt  because 
of  it ;  call  them  to  repentance ;  and  aim  to  have  thorn 
'  pricked  in  heart,'  and  moved  to  prostrate  themselves  be- 
fore God,  crying,  '  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner '  ?  In  a 
word,  should  not  these  convictions  more  positively  and 
vitally  appear  in  our  talk,  our  appeals,  and  all  our  methods 
of  labor  ?  Who,  indeed,  should  deal  plainly,  closely,  pun- 
gently,  with  this  subject,  if  not  we  ?     The  enormity  of  an 


sm.  97 

offence  being  always  proportionate  to  the  light  and  the  love 
ag-ainst  which  it  is  committed,  to  whom,  of  all  Christians, 
should  sin  be  so  sinful  and  obnoxious  as  to  us  'i  or  whose 
denunciations  of  it  should  be  so  severe  ?  or  whose  sense  of 
condemnation  on  account  of  it  should  be  so  poignant  and 
overwhelming  ?  For  who  show  a  Love  against  which  it 
rebels,  or  from  which  it  departs,  or  to  which  it  is  callously 
insensible,  so  vast,  so  tender,  so  all-embracing,  as  we  ? 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  who  have  sanctions  so  certain  and 
impressive,  or  motives  so  potent,  as  ours,  by  which  to  send 
home  to  souls  the  fact  that  not  only  is  sin  —  any  sin,  all  sin 
— :a  grievous  offence  against  God,  but  that  it  is,  and  must 
be,  a  sure  element  of  darkness,  death  and  woe'?  Others 
talk  of  the  pleasures  of  sin  ;  we,  never.  Others  believe 
that  it  may  be  committed  with  impunity  ;  we  pronoimce 
this  impossible.  Sin,  our  message  is,  is  not  only  a  tramp- 
ling of  the  commands  of  a  loving  Father,  but  a  trifling  with 
all  the  interests  of  the  moral  universe.  An  oficnce  against 
God,  it  is  also  death  and  hell  to  every  soul  who  serves  it. 
Why,  then,  should  we  not  commit  ourselves  to  the  New 
Departure  which  alike  the  letter  and  spirit  of  our  faith  thus 
demand,  emphasizing  beyond  all  others  the  enormity  of  sin, 
and  the  guilt  of  those  who  yield  themselves  to  it,  as  these 
things  are  pressed  upon  us, — so  rendering  it  henceforth  im- 
possible that  we  shall,  in  any  quarter,  be  charged  with  be- 
littling sin,  as,  with  apostolic  unction  and  zeal,  we  hold  it 
up  in  the  light  of  Divine  realities,  summoning  to  repentance 
and  newness  of  life  ? 

The  glory  of  Universalism  is  in  the  harmony  of  God's 
sovereignty  and  man's  accountability,  and  in  the  distinct- 
ness with  which,  pointing  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  it  proclaims 
the  wrong  of  sin,  and  the  certainty  of  God's  triumph  over 
it.  Be  it  ours,  while  abating  nothing  from  the  distinctness 
with  which  we  prophesy  this  latter  fact,  to  give  new  stress 
and  power  to  the  former.  There  is  much  of  good  in  the 
world  for  us  to  thank  God  for  ;  but  there  is  much  also  of 
evil  for  us  to  mourn  over  and  labor  against.  As  in  the 
Apostle's  time,  despite  all  that  Christianity  has  accomplished 
in  the  enlightenment  and  salvation  of  souls,  and  the  creation 
of  a  new  and  higher  civilization,  it  is  still  true,  alas  !   that 

7 


98  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

"the  whole  world  lieth  in  wickedness."  This  state  of 
things  it  is  ours,  if  we  have  any  part  or  lot  with  Christ,  to 
help  to  remedy.  As  a  Church,  we  have  no  other  final  pur- 
pose. But  how  is  it  to  be  remedied  ?  By  no  gentle  dalli- 
ance with  iniquity ;  by  no  rose-colored  optimism ;  by  no 
loose  theories  about  moral  distinctions,  or  the  nature  of 
moral  obligation  ;  by  no  exaggeration  of  God's  sovereignty, 
or  one-sided  talk  about  His  love.  It  can  be  remedied  only 
as  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  is  preached,  with  all  its  sanc- 
tions, in  its  due  relations  and  its  Divine  proportions  ;  only 
as,  while  men  are  told  that  God  is  sovei'eign,  and  are  pointed 
to  His  boundless,  pleading,  patient,  inextinguishable  love, 
they  are  jji-essed  also  with  their  own  responsibility  and  ob- 
ligations, and  are  thus  awakened  to  see,  and,  in  the  quick 
of  their  being,  to  feel,  what  a  thing  demanding  confession 
and  humiliation,  and  therefore  demanding  penitence  and 
self-renunciation,  sin  is.  Only  thus  can  any  effectual  war- 
fare against  the  wrong  of  the  world  be  accomplished,  or 
anything  be  done  to  lead  souls  home  to  God  through  the 
saving  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Shall  we  heed  the  lesson,  and  give  oui'selves  earnestly  to 
the  New  Departure  to  which  we  are  thus  called  ? 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SALVATION. 

We  need  no  New  Departure  as  to  the  fact  or  extent  of 
salvation  ;  but  do  we  not  need  one  in  the  way  of  a  more 
direct  and  personal  enforcement  of  its  nature  and  terms  ? 

It  was  related,  several  years  since,  of  a  Belgian  noble- 
man, condemned  to  death  for  murder,  that  as  the  ofBcers, 
who  had  come  to  prepare  him  for  execution,  were  about  to 
leave  him,  one  of  them  said,  "  You  have  now  nothing  to 
think  of  but  the  welfare  of  j^our  soul," — and  that  he  replied, 
"  0,  that  is  the  priest's  affair."  He  was  a  Catholic,  and 
was  thus  an  example  of  what  Catholic  education  can  do  in 
emptying  one  of  personal  concern  as  to  his  spiritual  welfare. 
But  does  he  not  also  strikinglj^  illustrate  a  form  of  thought 
in  respect  to  this  subject  quite  too  common  among  people 
of  all  sects,  and  of  no  sect,  throughout  Christendom,  and 
among  many  who  call  themselves  Universalists  as  well  as 
others  ? 

I  remember  to  have  once  read  a  communication  in  one  of 
our  papers,  in  which  the  writer  indignantly  complained  tliat, 
as  a  member  of  a  choir,  he  had,  not  long  before,  been  re- 
quired to  sing, 

"  A  charge  to  keep,  I  have, 
A  God  to  glorify,  — 
A  never-dying  soul  to  save, 
And  fit  it  for  the  sky ; " 

and  so  incensed  was  he,  he  declared,  at  the  abhorrent  senti- 
ment, especially  of  tlie  last  two  lines,  that  he  refused  to 
sing  the  words.  To  the  same  effect,  preaching  on  exchange, 
some  years  ago,  from  the  text,  "What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved  ? "  and  trying  to  press  home  the  question  as  one 
which  we  all  have  as  much  occasion  as  the  jailer  to  ask,  I 
so  shocked  a  good  woman  of  the  congregation  that  she  ran 

99 


100  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

in  alarm  to  her  (supplying)  minister,  urging  him  to  preach 
at  once  from  the  same  text,  to  counteract  my  heresy,  and 
expressing  her  fear  that  I  was  '  going  over  to  the  ortho- 
dox ' !  And  the  minister,  —  an  eminent  one,  —  sharing  in 
her  condemnation  of  the  heresy,  preached  as  requested,  and 
showed,  no  doubt  to  the  general  satisfaction,  that  the  jailer's 
question  had  no  religious  bearing,  and  that,  though  we 
should  be  concerned  in  appropriating  the  blessings  of  the 
Gospel  in  this  world,  it  is  taking  God's  business  oiit  of 
His  hands  to  ask  any  such  question  about  our  future  sal- 
vation. 

These  instances  —  and  many  similar  ones  might  be  given, 
were  it  necessary  —  were  not  recent;  but  do  they  not  very 
significantly  indicate  the  quality  of  much  of  the  thought 
which  has  been  current  among  us,  and  which  is  still  to  be 
somewhat  found  ?  The  misapprehension  is  not  the  same  as 
the  Belgian  Catholic's  ;  but  is  it  not  nearly  akin  to  it,  only 
substituting  God  for  the  priest  ?  This  is  the  idea,  —  that 
God  has  so  '  fixed  '  things  in  Christ  that  our  salvation  here- 
after is  their  '  affair,'  not  ours  at  all ;  and  that,  while  we 
may  properly  be  anxious  to  live  a  good  life  here,  we  have 
no  concern  as  to  what  is  beyond,  since  it  is  certain  that 
God  and  Clirist  have  us  so  in  charge  that  we  have  onl}'  to 
die  to  find  ourselves,  whether  we  have  lived  a  good  life  or 
a  bad  one,  safely  in  heaven.  Our  'evangelical'  friends 
must  not  think  to  use  this  statement  against  us,  for,  though 
it  lies  somewhat  differently  in  minds  accepting  their  doc- 
trines, this  same  essential  idea  that  our  future  immortal  sal- 
vation is  primarily  God's  '  affair,'  is  found  nowhere  more 
common,  and  scarcely  anywhere  in  more  mischievous  forms, 
than,  in  one  shape  or  another,  among  them.  In  fact,  as  it 
exists  among  us,  though  formally  put  in  another  way,  it  is 
only  a  part  of  the  undesirable  inheritance  we  have  derived 
from  them.  Happily,  in  our  case,  as  has  heretofore  been 
stated,  the  doctrine  in  whicli  this  idea  as  found  among  us 
had  its  origin  is  not  now  prevalent  as  formerly  ;  and  yet  — 
so  do  mischievous  notions  survive  in  effect  long  after  they 
in  form  are  dead  —  it  is  to  be  feared  that,  despite  our  im- 
proved theory  as  to  the  relations  of  character  here  to  con- 
dition   hereafter,    our    popular    denominational    thought   is 


SALVATION.  101 

largely  pervaded  and  vitiated  by  the  old  leaven,  first,  of 
'  orthodoxy/  as  to  what  salvation  is,  and  then,  of  that  stage 
of  our  doctrinal  development  which  put  all  souls  at  once  into 
heaven  at  death,  as  to  why  salvation  is  none  of  our  '  affair.' 
Under  these  circumstances,  we  need  a  thorough  review 
of  the  whole  ground,  and  thus  need  to  have  a  New  Depart- 
ure in  a  general  and  systematic  pi'esentation  of  this  grand 
Gospel  theme  of  salvation,  such  as  not  a  few  have  always 
been  accustomed  to  give,  which  will  put  our  whole  Church 
more  distinctly  upon  the  true  basis,  and  thus  secure  the 
direct  and  personal  enforcement  of  the  conditions  of  salva- 
tion which  meets  us  everywhere  in  the  Bible.  For,  con- 
sider, where  can  we  read  any  treatment  of  this  topic  in  the 
Bible,  and  not  find  oui'selves  pressed  with  what  we  have  to 
do,  as  well  as  encouraged  by  what  God  has  done  and  will 
do  ?  Well  would  it  be  for  us  all  could  this  fact  be  un- 
derstood in  all  its  bearings  and  admonitions.  I  know  of 
nothing,  indeed,  doctrinally,  for  which  the  whole  Christian 
world  is  more  suffering  to-day  than  for  an  accurate  concep- 
tion of  this  subject  as  the  Bible  presents  it,  and  especially 
as  it  lay  in  the  thought  of  our  Lord  ;  and  for  ourselves,  I 
am  satisfied  there  is  scarcely  another  truth  of  the  Gospel  a 
clear,  understanding  of  which,  in  all  its  relations,  would  do 
so  much  for  us  in  clarifying  the  whole  current  of  our  opin- 
ions, and  in  securing  that  wiser  and  more  effective  apprecia- 
tion of  motive  and  obligation  which  is  our  great  lack. 

What  is  salvation  ?  Much  would  be  done  to  simplify  the 
subject,  and  to  send  it  home  with  fresh  power  to  consciences 
and  hearts,  if  a  proper  understanding  of  the  answer  to  this 
question  could  but  be  secured.  Words  falsely  defined  con- 
fuse thought,  by  suggesting  meanings  or  distinctions  wliich 
have  no  existence  in  fact.  The  creeds  have  long  made  sal- 
vation, not  at  all  an  inward  process,  but  an  external  rescue, 
and  a  happy  admission  into  heaven  ;  and  so  ingrained  has 
this  idea  become  in  the  popular  thought,  determining  and 
perverting  every  conception  in  the  case,  that,  as  Dr.  Ballou 
once  said,  in  substance,  though  they  "  have  decidedly  rejected 
it  in  its  naked  form,  it  enters  more  or  less  into  the  habitual 
impressions  of  Universalists  themselves,  so  as  to  affect  their 


102  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

language  and  their  forms  of  argument."  But  the  Bible  no- 
where indicates,  or  warrants  any  such  idea.  "  Thou  shalt 
call  his  name  Jesus,  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their 
sins."  This  epitomizes  the  invariable  burden  of  the  Bible 
on  this  point.  And  to  be  saved  from  sin  is  —  what  but  to 
be  helped  to  be  good  ?  And  wisliing  to  be  good  —  how, 
anywhere,  are  we  to  reach  this  result  ?  How,  under  God, 
but  by  jDcrsonal  resolve  and  eflFort  ?  What,  then,  have  we 
but  the  whole  doctrine  of  salvation  througli  Christ,  as  to 
substance  and  method,  summed  up  in  these  few  words  — 
showing  that  salvation  is  a  deliverance  from  ignorance  and 
sin,  in  a  growing  goodness,  attained  through  our  own  per- 
sonal resolve  and  effort,  in  an  acceptance  of  Christ's  help, 
under  God's  blessing  ?  And  could  this  but  be  once  generally 
perceived  and  felt,  would  any  further  misconception  as  to 
whose  '  affair '  salvation  is  be  possible  ?  or  should  we  be 
likely  to  see  so  niuch  indifference  and  neglect  concerning  it  ? 
God  is  over  all  in  respect  to  our  salvation,  it  is  true,  and 
as  "  His  unspeakable  gift,"  Christ  is  "  made  unto  us  wisdom, 
and  righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and  redemption."  This 
the  whole  New  Testament  teaches.  But  are  we  anywhere 
independent  of  God  ?  Is  He  not  in  a  like  sense  over  all  in 
every  department  of  our  interests,  and  wherever  blessings 
of  whatever  sort  are  possible  to  us,  does  He  not  graciously 
bestow  the  help  and  opportunity  in  the  improvement  of  which 
we  are  to  attain  them  ?  In  no  single  instance,  however, 
are  we  absolved  from  the  necessity  of  accepting  the  help 
and  improving  the  opportunity,  if  the  blessing  is  to  be  en- 
joyed. Personal  effort,  indeed,  co-operating  with  God  in  the 
use  of  the  means  He  has  bestowed,  is  not  this,  look  where 
we  will,  the  one  cardinal  and  inexorable  condition  of  all 
real  attainment  and  success  ?  In  intellectual  pursuits,  in 
secular  prosperities,  who  expects  to  be  anything',  or  to  ac- 
complish anything,  save  as  he  himself  works  for  it  ?  And 
holding  in  respect  to  everything  else,  is  it  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  this  law  is  suspended  only  in  respect  to  moral  in- 
terests and  spiritual  possessions  —  the  most  precious  of  all  ? 
Nay,  by  the  very  necessities  of  the  case,  must  it  not  hold 
even  more  rigorously  as  the  price  of  these  ?  Even  more 
rigorously,  I  say  :  for  one  may  come  into  wealth,  or  eminent 


SALVATION,  103 

social  or  political  position,  and  so  attain  to  what  passes 
for  success  by  inheritance,  or  through  favoring  circum- 
stances. But  who  can  inherit  goodness  —  as  a  positive 
quality  ?  Or,  however  propitious  circumstances  may  bo, 
who  ever  was  made,  or  can  be  made,  spiritually  wise  and 
consecrate  by  them,  except  as  he  or  she  has  willed  and 
wrought,  or  does  will  and  work,  to  become  so  ?  There  is, 
indeed,  a  kind  of  negative  goodness,  the  result  of  a  happily 
balanced  temperament  and  the  absence  of  any  occasion  of 
evil  —  as  a  vegetable  stalk  stands  erect  because  nothing  has 
touched  it  to  bend  it,  or  as  a  brook  runs  a  certain  undeviat- 
ing  course  because  its  banks  enclose  it,  and  nothing  inter- 
poses to  divert  it.  But  such  goodness  has  no  absolute 
moral  worth;  is  only  the  innocence  of  a  child,  not  the 
tried  virtue,  or  the  rugged,  resolute  Tightness  of  a  man. 
This  positive  goodness  must  be  acquired  —  often  through 
wrestling,  resistance,  and  hard-earned  victory,  —  always  as 
the  fruit,  under  God,  of  our  own  purpose  and  exertion. 
Nobody  can  make  me  thus  good  —  with  becoming  reverence, 
is  it  too  much  to  say  that,  unless  by  annulling  all  the  laws 
of  my  moral  nature,  and  dealing  with  me  as  a  thing,  and  not 
as  a  soul,  God  himself  cannot  make  me  thus  good  ?  —  except 
as  I  am  myself  moved  to  desire  and  labor  to  become  so. 

And  this  is  no  temporary  appointment,  we  have  reason  to 
believe.     The  Bible  and  all  that  belongs  to  the   case  indi- 
cate that  it  is  a  perpetual  law,  because  inherent  in  the  very 
constitution  of  the  human  soul  and  the   methods  of  influ- 
ence God  has  ordained  for  it.     It  is  not  a  thing  of  time,  or 
place,  therefore.     Holding  here,  it  holds  with  equal  inflexi- 
bility wherever   the  soul  as  a    soul  may   go,  in  whatever 
states  or  stages  of  its  being.     Live  where,  or  as  long  as,  or 
under  whatever  circumstances  the  soul  may,  the  continuity 
of  its  life  is  simply  the  continuity  of  its  consciousness  and 
its  powers,   and  the  instant  and  constant  assertion  of  the 
same  essential  spiritual  laws.     Destroy  this  consciousness, 
impair  these  powers,  or  suspend  these  laws,  and  the   reality 
and  identity  of  its  life  are  so  far  suspended  or  destroyed. 
Hence,  wherever  they  may  be,  so  long  as  souls  remain  the 
same  moral  entities  and  agents,  they  must  not  only  carry 
the  same  moral  consciousness  and  retain  the  same  moral 


104  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

powers,  but  must  be  subject  to  substantially  the  same  spirit- 
ual laws. 

What,  then,  follows?  Identical  as  our  growing  good- 
ness and  our  salvation  are,  salvation  can  pertain  no  more  to 
the  future  immortal  world  than  goodness,  and  is,  therefore, 
to  be  reached,  there  or  anywhere,  only  on  the  same  condi- 
tions. We  are  saved  here  just  in  the  same  way,  and  just 
so  far,  as  through  the  help  and  uplifting  power  of  Christ, 
we  become  good  here  ;  and  hereafter,  we  can  be  saved  in  no 
other  way  and  to  no  other  extent.  Salvation  there,  there- 
fore, is  dependent  on  our  own  faith  and  choice,  on  our  own 
effort  and  self-surrender,  precisely  as,  and  for  the  same 
reason  that,  our  growth  in  virtue  and  Christian  character  is 
dependent  on  these  conditions  here.  Salvation  anywhere  is 
possible  only  as  goodness  is  possible. 

The  conclusion  is  apparent.  If  salvation,  either  here  or 
hereafter,  seems  to  us  a  thing  to  be  at  all  desired,  we  are  to 
understand  that  it  is,  under  God,  our  concern  exactly  in  the 
same  sense  as  any  advance  in  knowledge,  or  goodness,  or 
as  any  attainment  of  desirable  qualities  or  possessions,  is 
our  concern,  and  is  to  be  realized  only  as  we  pay  the  ex- 
acted pi'ice  of  choosing  and  working  for  it.  Sin  being  the 
voluntary  surrender  of  ourselves  to  motives  and  purposes 
alien  to  God  and  good,  salvation  must,  necessarily,  be  our 
equally  voluntary  election  of  better  motives  and  purposes. 
In  other  words,  if  we  are  to  be  directly  and  personally 
benefited  by  Christ  as  our  Saviour  anywhere,  not  only 
is  there  something  for  us  to  believe,  but  something  for  us  to 
do ;  not  only  something  to  be  done  for  us,  but  something 
to  be  done  by  us.  Christianity,  that  is  to  say,  is  no 
moral  '  labor-saving  machine.'  It  opens  no  free  bridge,  it 
places  us  on  no  royal  road  to  heaven  ;  and  God's  plan  of  re- 
demption in  Christ  is  no  contrivance  to  get  us  saved,  pas- 
sively,—  only  a  means  whereby,  co-operating  with  God, 
under  the  lead  of  Christ,  we  may  save  ourselves. 

How  but  in  this  form  does  the  Bible  invariably  present 
the  subject?  Its  word  in  reference  to  this  world  is,  "  If  any 
will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat ;  "  and  it  has  just  as  lit- 
tle indulgence  for  indolence  in  respect  to  the  bread  of  ever- 
lasting life.     It  says  to  us  in  our  secular  and  business  rela- 


SALVATION.  105 

tions,  "  Work  with  your  own  hands  :  .  .  .  that  ye  may 
walk  honestly,  .  .  .  and  have  lack  of  nothing ;  "  and  even 
when  most  positively  certifying  us  of  the  time  when,  "at 
the  name  of  Jesus,  every  knee  shall  bow,  .  .  .  and  every 
tongue  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of 
God  the  Father,"  it  says  to  us  with  still  more  emphasis  in 
our  spiritual  relations,  "  Wherefore,  .  .  .  work  out  your 
own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,"  —  or  with  anxiety 
and  self-distrust  (Conybeare  and  Howson).  And  this  is 
the  manner  in  which  this  side  of  the  subject  is  always  pre- 
sented. Thus,  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  summons  is, 
"  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  lie  maybe  found,  call  ye  upon  Him 
while  He  is  near.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the 
unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return  unto  the 
Lord,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God, 
for  He  will  abundantly  pardon  :  "  —  and  this,  too,  in  con- 
nection with  the  most  positive  assurance  that  God's  pur- 
pose of  grace  shall,  beyond  all  peradventure,  be  accom- 
plished. And  in  the  New  Testament,  the  word  is,  "  I  am 
the  door  ;  by  me,  if  any  man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved." 
"  Whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved." 
Christ,  we  are  told,  "became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation 
unto  all  them  that  obey  him,''  and  "  is  able  to  save  them  to 
the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by  him."  The  Bible  knows 
nothing  of  any  salvation  through  Christ  that  is  not  dependeot 
on  these  and  like  conditions. 

And  these  are  conditions,  let  it  be  noted,  that  imply  much 
more  than  saying,  I  believe  in  Christ,  —  or,  I  am  sorry,  — • 
or,  0  God,  help  me  ;  and  therefore  forbid  any  theory  of  sal- 
vation which  warrants  a  man  in  thinking  that  he  can,  all  his 
days,  live  a  life  of  godlessness  and  crime,  and  then,  through 
some  technical  formula,  '  swing  from  the  gallows  into  glory,' 
as  the  Methodist  divine.  Rev.  Dr.  Abel  Stevens,  once  ex- 
pressed it,  or  on  his  death-bed,  suddenly  call  a  minister,  and 
through  his  shriving,  find  himself  in  a  few  minutes  in 
heaven.  The  conditions  specified  imply  not  simply  a  mo- 
mentary penitence,  but  an  entire  revolution  in  the  soul ;  a 
change  not  only  in  the  direction,  but  in  the  whole  quality 
and  substance  of  life.  It  is  not  barely  a  crisis  that  they 
demand,  but  a  regenerative  process,  purifying  and  uplifting 


106  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE, 

the  whole  man  in  a  christianized  and  sanctified  character. 
Goodness  is  character  of  the  rig-ht  sort.  Hence  only  by  faith, 
penitence,  resolve,  effort,  taking  hold  of  Christ,  and  becom- 
ing transmuted  into  whitened  and  holy  character,  thus  at- 
tuning- the  soul  with  God,  can  these  conditions  of  salvation 
be  fulfilled,  or  can  a  soul  find  itself  really  redeemed.  But 
all  this  is  the  work  of  time.  Sudden,  even  instantaneous 
changes  there  may  be,  and  frequently  are,  in  thought, 
aim,  purpose.  Living  heedlessly  or  badly,  one  may  be  sud- 
denly arrested  and  resolve  upon  a  better  life.  And  for- 
giveness, acceptance  there  is  for  the  prodigal,  however  much 
a  prodigal  he  may  have  been,  in  proportion  as  he  renounces 
his  past  and  rises  into  something  better.  But  salvation, 
as  a  completed  state  of  the  soul,  ending  in  what  the  Bible 
calls  heaven,  is  a  difierent  thing,  and  is  possible  only  as  a 
completely  renovated  character  is  possible,  wrought  out 
through  the  help  of  Christ,  by  the  saul's  own  struggles  and 
effort,  and  taking  form  in  a  goodness  that  knows  no  taint 
of  sin. 

But  this  is  salvation  by  works,  perhaps  it  will  be  said, 
whereas  the  New  Testament  peremptorily  declares  that  we 
are  "  saved  by  grace,  not  of  works,"  and  that  "  eternal  life  is 
the  gift  of  God."  Very  true,  the  New  Testament  does  so 
aflSrm  ;  and  a  most  encouraging  and  comforting  sense  of 
God's  merciful  thoughtfulness  it  gives  us  so  to  believe. 
But  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Ballon,  "  so  far  as  we  have  observed, 
every  text  which  asserts  that  salvation  is  of  grace,  or  not 
of  works,  speaks  of  it,  at  the  same  time,  as  experienced  ia 
this  life,  and  effected  by  moral  influences,  —  as,  '  By  grace 
are  ye  saved  [that  is,  already  saved],  through  faith ; '  so 
that,  after  all,  it  is  the  same  salvation  which  is  represented, 
in  other  passages,  as  attained  by  human  agency."  *  Nobody 
supposes  that  salvation,  so  far  as  we  here  experience  it  in 
a  growing  holiness  and  spirituality,  is  something  conferred 
upon  us  independent  of  our  own  faith  or  purpose.  It  is 
something  we  attain   in  the   use   of  the  means   furnished. 

*  Universalist  Expositor,  1840,  pp.  45,  46.  Should  these  pages  fall 
into  the  hands  of  any  who  have  not  read  this  paper  of  Dr.  Ballon,  on  The 
New  Testament  Doctrine  of  Salvation,  let  me  urge  them  to  procure  and 
read  it  at  the  first  opi)ortunity. 


SALVATION-.  107 

I 

Ileuce,  evidently,  it  is  to  these  means,  and  not  to  salvation 
as  an  end  accomplished,  that  reference  is  made  when  it  is 
said  that  salvation  is  of  grace,  and  that  eternal  life  is  the 
gift  of  God.  The  means  have  been  freely  bestowed,  and 
God  is  ever  pleading  with  us  to  accept  and  use  them  ;  but 
they  avail  nothing  except  as  they  are  used  in  compliance 
with  the  appointed  conditions  ;  nor,  though  they  have  been 
so  freely  given,  can  we  hope  for  anything,  either  here  or  be- 
yond, on  account  of  them,  only  as  we  appropriate  them, 
seeking  to  enter  into  life  through  them. 

Reference  was  made,  at  the  opening  of  this  chapter,  to 
those  who  expect  salvation  on  the  supposition  that  they 
have  only  to  die  to  find  themselves,  without  care  or  agency 
of  theirs,  happy  in  heaven  — just  as  they  came  into  this 
world,  from  their  pre-natal  state,  through  birth,  or  just  as 
some  kindly  power  might  transfer  them  from  a  home  of  pov- 
erty, on  one  side  of  the  street,  to  a  splendid  mansion  on  the 
other.  But  even  granting  the  correctness. of  the  theory  of 
the  Resurrection  on  which  this  expectation  proceeds,  how 
can  the  mere  getting  into  a  place  called  heaven  consummate 
the  spiritual  change  which  salvation  involves  ?  Heaven  is 
a  place,  no  doubt,  beautiful,  glorious,  beyond  our  conception. 
But  will  getting  into  the  place  make  any  one  blessed,  as  one 
becomes  warm  by  going  into  a  heated  room  ?  Surely  not. 
Holiness,  harmony  with  God,  is  the  essence  of  its  felicity  ; 
and  without  this,  though  the  place  were  ten  thousand  times 
more  glorious,  happiness  would  be  impossible  there.  Really, 
then,  heaven  is  a  state  of  the  soul,  rather  than  a  place  in 
which  the  soul  lives  ;  and  one  entering  the  place,  can  find  it 
heaven  only  as  he  carries  in  himself  the  fulfilled  conditions 
of  its  blessedness.  Concede,  therefore,  that  the  Resurrec- 
tion is,  as  is  so  commonly  supposed,  simply  our  passing  on 
into  another  realm  of  being,  —  our  rising  out  of  this  mortal 
into  an  immortal  life,  what  can  it  do  towards  putting  into  a 
soul  these  fulfilled  conditions  of  blessedness?  A  soul  cannot 
be  emptied  or  stripped  of  its  sin  by  any  such  change  of  place, 
as  a  bottle  may  bo  emptied  of  its  contents,  or  a  body  be 
stripped  of  a  garment  in  such  a  transit;  nor  can  it  be  filled 
or  clothed  with  holiness,  as  a  jar  may  have  some  pure 
liquid  poured  into  it,  or  a  body  be  clad  in  a  clean  garment. 


108  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

As  Dr.  Ballou  has  well  said,  "  He  knows  little  of  our  nature 
who  imagines  tliat  faith  and  righteousness  can  be  communi- 
cated to  the  mind,  without  any  agency  on  our  part,  as 
water  may  be  poured  into  a  vessel  or  passive  receiver ;  for 
faith  and  righteousness  are  themselves  but  exercises  of  the 
understanding  and  affections.  They  are  the  results  of 
active  thought  and  feeling/'  Sin  or  holiness  is  a  state  of 
the  afiections  ;  a  condition  or  posture  of  the  mind  and 
heart.  Change  places,  change  worlds  even,  though  we  do, 
we  are  not  changed  save  as  our  affections,  our  minds  and 
hearts  are  changed.  Go  where  we  may,  therefore,  we  cannot 
pass  out  of  the  necessity  of  our  own  right  will  and  effort, 
and  so  of  our  own  moral  activity,  as  the  one  irremissible 
price  of  salvation,  for  the  reason  that  we  are  moral  beings, 
and  that  salvation  concerns  us  —  not  as  a  mechanical  work, 
as  if  we  were  things,  but  as  a  moral  process,  "  implying  the 
exercise  of  conscience  and  free-will,"  in  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  we  are  souls.  Whatever  may  be  true,  then,  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  we  might  be  dealt  with  if  we  were  things, 
there  clearly  can  be  no  mortal  action,  or  result,  except  as 
our  moral  faculties  move  and  concur  to  produce  it ;  and  were 
it  possible  for  us  to  be  saved  through  the  Resurrection, 
without  this,  we  should  be  saved  as  things,  not  as  souls. 

As  has  been  said  on  one  of  our  earlier  pages,  no  one  can 
tell  what  is  to  be  the  effect  of  the  soul's  emancipation  from 
the  body  into  the  new  circumstances  of  the  Immortal  Life. 
No  theory  of  salvation  is  complete,  or  scriptural,  that  does 
not  duly  take  into  account  all  the  possibilities  of  this  eman- 
cipation, and  of  the  soul's  new  surroundings  in  consequence. 
But  do  new  circumstances  and  associations  here,  of  them- 
selves, transform  us  ?  Transport  one  who  has  lived  a  low 
and  sensual  life  from  all  such  associations  into  the  best  and 
most  spiritually  electric  companionships,  and  do  you  there- 
by make  him  moral  and  religious  ?  Such  a  change  of  cir- 
cumstances is  favorable  to  a  better  life,  if  one  will  accept 
what  they  give,  and  choose  and  will  as  they  suggest.  Not 
otherwise.  Tiiey  have  no  necessary  or  instantaneous  trans- 
forming power.  And  if  not  here,  why  hereafter,  even 
though  tlie  body  is  thrown  aside,  since  character  is  not  of 
the  body,  but  of  the  soul  ?     Admit  all  that  can  be  properly 


SALVATION.  109 

claimed  as  to  the  helpful  tendency  of  such  changed  circum- 
stances towards  a  corresponding-  change  of  character,  still 
this  much  we  know  by  virtue  of  our  nature  as  moral  beings 
—  that  as  one  here  transferred  from  vicious  to  virtuous  as- 
sociations, must  himself  choose  and  work  towards  goodness, 
if  he  is  to  become  really  good,  so  a  similar  exercise  of  our 
moral  faculties  must  always  be  necessary,  wherever  we  may 
be,  if  we  are  to  reach  any  actual  attainment  in  personal 
holiness,  ilereafter  as  certainly  as  here,  therefore,  salva- 
tion is  possible  to  any  soul  only  as,  in  such  an  exercise  of 
its  own  powers,  it  believes,  repents,  and,  clasping  Christ, 
says,  Lord,  thou  art  mine  ;  help  me  to  be  wholly  thine,  — 
working  meantime  to  climb  upward  and  be  like  him. 

And  this,  there  are  those  of  us  who  think,  as  we  read 
the  New  Testament,  is  what  is  signified  by  the  Resui-rection  : 
not  the  mere  passage  of  the  soul  forward  into  another 
sphere  of  being,  but  its  gradual  regeneration  ;  its  rising 
out  of  selfishness  into  all  large  and  holy  affections,  out  of 
all  impiety  and  impurity  and  earthliness  into  the  image  of 
Christ,  and  therefore  into  harmony  and  communion  with 
God;  as  Paul  puts  it,  its  deliverance  "from  the  bondage 
of  corruption,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  childreu  of 
God.''  If  this  be  so,  then  we  have  something  to  do  in  the 
very  process  of  the  Resurrection.  And  what  but  this  does 
the  Apostle  mean  (Phil.  iii.  10,  11),  when,  describing  his 
spiritual  struggles,  he  says,  "  That  1  may  know  him,  and 
the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and  the  fellowship  of  his 
sufferings,  being  made  comformable  unto  his  death,  if  by  any 
means  I  might  attain  unto  the  I'esui'rection  of  the  dead  ''  ?     . 

At  all  events,  not  to  make  a  point  of  this,  whatever  the 
Resurrection,  it  cannot  relieve  us  from  the  necessit}'  of  car- 
ing for  our  salvation  as  our  personal  concern  —  as  the  Bible 
everywhere  assures  us  it  is.  The  bowing  of  the  knee  to 
Christ,  and  the  confession  of  him  as  Lord,  not  in  word  only, 
but  in  the  surrender  of  our  whole  being  to  his  authority, 
and  in  the  taking  on  of  his  image,  are  the  New  Testament 
symbols  of  our  redemption.  This,  is  a  personal,  and  must 
be  a  willing,  bowing  and  confession  ;  and  so  long  as  these, 
or  the  ftiith  and  effort,  tlie  consecration  and  resolve  thus 
signified,  are  postponed,  be  we  where  we  may,  our  salvation 


110  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

will  be  postiooned  —  be  postponed  until,  of  our  own  will, 
in  response  to  the  pleadings  of  God's  grace,  and  in  the  use 
of  Christ's  help,  we  seek  and  find  it.  And  we  are  Univer- 
salists,  the  most  of  us,  only  because  we  see  a  time  when 
the  most  unbelieving  will  be  awakened  to  faith,  and  the 
most  obdurate  be  melted  into  contrition,  and  those  most  ut- 
terly lost  and  dead  in  the  decay  of  will  and  spiritual  faculty 
be  quickened  to  call  on  God  and  resolve  towards  home,  and 
when,  therefore,  all  will  be  saved  because  all,  through 
Christ  as  the  Way,  have  sought  and  found  the  salvation 
God  has  provided  for  them. 

To  the  general  view  thus  presented,  we  are,  as  a  Church, 
undeniably  committed.  It  is  our  denominational  position, 
so  far  as  the  pronounced  convictions  of  the  great  majority 
of  our  ministers  and  most  tlioughtful  people  can  deter- 
mine this  position.  Shall  wo  not,  then,  by  common  consent, 
have  a  New  Departure  as  to  our  way  of  putting  the  subject, 
so  that  while  God  and  Christ  and  their  work  shall  be  fully 
recognized,  salvation  shall  henceforth  be  urged  by  us  —  not 
as  their  concern  exclusively,  but  as  ours,  —  a  result  finally 
dependent,  under  God,  solely  upon  ourselves  and  our  own 
resolve  and  endeavor  ?  And  shall  not  our  summons,  with 
great  ardor  and  strenuousness,  be,  0  souls  that  would  be 
saved,  see  what  you  have  at  stake,  and  be  up  and  doing  ? 
Was  it  not  so  that  Christ  preached  ?  Was  it  not  so  that 
the  Apostles  preached  ?  Is  it  not  thus  that  Christianity  con- 
stantly addresses  a  world  estranged  from  God,  and  needing 
to  be  spiritually  vitalized  and  reconciled  to  Him  ?  How 
else  have  the  indifferent  ever  been  aroused,  or  the  thought- 
less stirred  to  attention,  or  the  sinful  awakened  to  penitence 
and  amended  living?  Or,  how  .else  can  we  expect  to 
become  an  awakening  power  to  torpid,  unbelieving,  sin- 
cankered  souls,  or  to  see  among  us  that  sense  of  personal 
concern  and  that  increased  religious  earnestness  which  wo 
so  much  need  ?  3Ien  give  little  attention  to  that  in  respect  to 
wliich  they  feel  that  they  have  nothing  to  do.  If,  therefore, 
we  would  be  a  life-giving  power  in  tlie  world,  and  see  those 
to  whom  our  message  comes  really  moved  with  respect  to 
spiritual  things,  inquiring  with  kindled  hearts   concerning 


SALVATION.  Ill 

their  own  salvation,  and  interested  in  furthering  the  salva- 
tion of  others,  wo  must  be  rid  of  the  idea  that  salvation 
is,  in  any  sense,  a  thing-  with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do, 
and,  with  something  of  prophetic  and  apostolic  nnction, 
first  of  all  applying  the  words  to  ourselves,  must  take  up 
the  old  cries,  "Cast  away  from  you  all  your  transgres- 
sions, and  make  you  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit :  for  why 
will  ye  die  ? "  and,  "  As  though  God  did  beseech  you  by 
us,  we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead.  Be  ye  reconciled  to 
God." 

This  idea  that  our  salvation  anywhere  is  God's  '  affair,' 
and  not  our  pressing  personal  concern,  has  wrought  us 
great  harm  ;  it  will  not  cease  to  bo  a  leaven  of  harm,  so 
long  as  it  at  all  survives  among  us.  "  Whal  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?"  we  should  hereafter  cause  it  to  be  understood,  is 
a  question  which  we  have,  every  one  of  us,  occasion  to  ask 
with  profound  solicitude.  Not,  What  shall  I  do  to  insure 
rescue  from  the  wrath  of  God,  and  perdition  in  hell  ?  —  as 
one  is  rescued  from  deserved  hangiug,  or  from  drowning  ; 
but.  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  from  sin  and  its  darkness 
and  absence  from  God  ?  What  shall  I  do  to  become  pure, 
unselfish,  Christ-like,  thoroughly  good,  —  superior  to  temp- 
tation, and  growing  in  freedom  from  sin  ?  This  is  the 
grand  question  —  not  particularly  with  reference  to  the  pres- 
ent, not  particularly  with  reference  to  the  future  ;  but  with 
reference  to  the  everlasting  Now  in  which  we  are  always 
living,  and  always  shall  live,  and  because  holiness  alone  is 
life,  and  any  lack  of  harmony  with  God  is  spiritual  poverty, 
death  and  woe.  Only  as  we  ask  this  question  and  act  upon 
the  sense  of  personal  concern  which  it  expresses,  can  we 
become  Christians  here,  or  find  our  way  among  the  redeemed 
hereafter  ;  and  only  as  we  awaken  others  thus  to  ask  and 
act,  are  we  following  in  the  steps  of  Christ  and  the  Apos- 
tles, or  beginning  to  do  the  work  of  a  Christian  Church. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CONVERSION. 

Theoretically,  the  Bible  doctrine  of  Conversion  has  no 
more  strenuous  advocates  than  Universalists,  No  faith  in 
what  is  called  '  miraculous  conversion  '  is  pretended,  for  the 
reason  that  we  have  no  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  Human 
Depravity  from  which  it  logically  comes.  Nor  does  the 
Bible  authorize  any  such  theory  of  conversion.  Were  we 
to  judge  from  tlie  manner  in  which  the  subject  is  commonly 
urged,  indeed,  it  would  be  supposed  —  as  many  do  suppose 

—  that  the  Scriptures  are  full  of  the  doctrine  of  conversion 
as  a  supernatural  process,  enforced  by  some  word  having  a 
single  fixed  meaning,  standing  for  just  this  and  nothing  else 

—  as  it  ought  to  be,  if  the  traditional  teaching  as  to  its 
nature  were  correct,  since,  on  this  theory,  there  is  nothing 
in  the  universe  analogous  to  it.  But  the  fact  is  quite  other- 
wise. Not  only  is  conversion,  as  enjoined  in  the  Bible,  as 
simple  and  as  easy  to  be  understood  as  any  other  change  of 
purpose,  but  the  word  is  i;sed  "in  all  manner  of  connec- 
tions, for  all  sorts  of  purposes  and  with  the  utmost  freedom  ; 
is  just  as  common  a  word  as  turning,  or  going.  It  signifies 
simply,  to  turn  from  one  state  or  condition  to  another,  and 
is  used  of  one  who  turns /ro??i  duty  as  well  as  of  one  who 
turns  to  it,  having  just  as  many  uses  as  the  word  turn, 
physical,  moral,  secular,  religious."  When  it  is  said,  "Let 
your  laughter  be  turned  to  mourning,"  precisely  the  same 
word  is  used  as  when  our  Lord  says  to  Peter,  "  When  thou 
art  converted,  strengthen  thy  brethren."  When  it  is  recorded 
that  "  Jesus  turned  Mm  about  in  the  press,  and  said.  Who 
touched  my  clothes  ?  "  the  same  word  is  used  as  when  we 
read,  "  He  which  converteth  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his 
way  shall  save  a  soul  from  death,"  and  as  when  our  Lord 
saj^s,  "  Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children, 
ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

112 


COKVERSION.  113 

Nor  is  this  all.  As  a  verb,  the  word  is  always  put  by 
our  trauslators  in  the  passive  form,  implying-  that  the  thing- 
is  done  to,  or  for,  and  not  hij  us.  Thus  we  read,  "  Aiid 
sinners  shall  he  converted  unto  thee,"  —  and  of  the  Jews, 
that  they  had  closed  their  eyes,  "lest  at  any  time  they 
should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  he  converted,"  and  in  the 
passage  above  cited,  "  Except  ye  he  converted,  and  become 
as  little  children."  Bat  the  original,  those  who  have 
studied'the  subject  assure  us,  gives  no  warrant  for  this,  and 
one  writer*  says  that  he  does  "  not  recall  an  instance  where 
the  verb  in  the  original  has  this  passive  form."  Instead, 
therefore,  of  the  statement,  "  And  sinners  shall  be  converted 
unto  thee,"  we  should  read,  "  And  sinners  shall  turn,  or 
return,  unto  thee  ;  "  and  instead  of,  "  Repent  ye,  therefore, 
and  he  converted,'^  we  should  read,  "Repent  and  turn,  or 
return."  When  the  translators  give  us  the  Avord  turn 
instead  of  convert,  they  put  it  in  this  active  form,  implying 
that  the  action  is  on  our  part,  as  when  we  read  that  "  a 
great  number  believed  and  ^wr»e(Z  —  or  as  the  expression  is 
made  elsewhere,  were  converted  —  unto  the  Lord." 

What,  then,  is  the  conclusion,  these  things  being  so  ? 
This,  clearly,  —  that,  as  one  turns  his  body  from  one  attitude 
to  another,  or,  if  away  from  home,  may  return  to  it,  —  as 
one,  even,  who  is  going  the  right  Avay,  may  turn  about  and 
pursue  the  wrong,  so,  in  tlie  same  sense  of  simple  tai^ning, 
involving  nothing  more  strange  or  supernatural,  and  imply- 
ing a  precisely  similar  exercise  of  one's  choice,  conversion 
is  the  turning  of  a  soul  from  a  state  of  unbelief,  or  indiffer- 
ence, or  worldiness,  or  sin,  to  a  condition  of  faith  and  re- 
ligious resolve  and  endeavor.  It  is  something  as  purely 
voluntary  on  our  part,  —  something  as  entirely  depending 
on  the  personal  exercise  of  our  own  faculties,  and  therefore 
as  much  within  our  own  election  and  determination  as  the 
change  of  an  idler  into  studiousness,  —  as  the  reform  of  one 
who  resolves    on  abstinence  instead  of  drunkenness,  —  or 

*  Eev.  S.   Judd,  I  think  —  in  an   excellent  sermon,  from  which   my 
notes   had  made   the  quotation  in  the  preceding   paragraph.     I  have 
looked  for  the  sermon  in  vain.    I  wislied  to  verify  my  impression  as  to  the 
author,  and  to  make  other  extracts,  —  possibly  to  give  further  credit. 
8 


114  OUR  NEW  DEPAETURE. 

as  is  anything  else  of  which  we  are  accustomed  to  say  that  it 
is  wholly  at  our  option.  God  has  furnished  the  means,  in  all 
that  He  has  taught  us,  and  especially  in  all  that  He  has 
given  us  in  His  Son  ;  and  amidst  these  instructions,  appeals 
and  awakening  agencies,  supplemented  always  by  the  striv- 
ings and  pleadings  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  as  Christ  says, 
"  Except  ye  turn,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  it  is  for  us  to  say 
whether  we  will  turn  or  not,  and  when  we  will  turn,  and 
how  far  we  will  turn,  and  therefore  to  what  extent  we  will 
be  converted,  or  will  convert  ourselves,  and  enter  upon  a 
new  and  nobler  life. 

The  single  idea  of  conversion,  it  thus  appears,  is  that  it 
is  a  quickening  of  the  soul  to  spiritual  consciousness  and 
activity  ;  an  awakening  to  a  sense  of  our  relations,  interests 
and  obligations,  in  consequence  of  which  we  resolutely  set 
ourselves  God-ward,  —  turning,  according  to  our  particular 
state  and  needs,  from  a  life  somehow  below  what  we  should 
live,  to  the  life  which  God  and  our  own  welfare  demand. 
Hence,  naturally,  "  Wash  you  ;  make  you  clean  ;  put  away 
the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes  ;  cease  to  do 
evil ;  learn  to  do  well,"  is  the  manner  in  which  it  is  enforced 
in  the  Old  Testament ;  and  the  New  Testament,  in  different 
words,  enjoins  precisely  the  same  thing.  This  is  illustrated 
in  the  words  of  our  Lord  just  now  mentioned,  "  Except  ye 
be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  The  disciples  had  been 
ambitiously  disputing  who  should  be  greatest  in  the  king- 
dom. Thereupon  the  Master  placed  a  little  child  before 
them,  telling  them  that,  unless  they  renounced  all  such  self- 
ish ambition,  and  retained  to  the  simplicity  and  guileless- 
ness  of  their  childhood,  they  could  not  even  enter  into  his 
kingdom,  much  less  be  greatest  in  it.  His  words,  no  doubt, 
had  a  special  application  to  them  ;  but  they  very  distinctly 
set  forth  the  radical  idea  of  conversion,  in  its  Bible  sense. 
Though  one  who  has  battled  with  temptation,  and  who  is 
pure  tlirough  conflict  and  victory,  has  qualities  which  can- 
not pertain  to  the  untried  innocence  of  a  little  child,  child- 
hood is,  nevertheless,  a  fitting  type  of  that  simple,  docile, 
loving  state  of  mind  and  heart  becoming  the  Christian  disci- 


CONVERSION.  115 

pie.  As  children,  our  hearts  had  not  become  hardened  or 
cold.  We  were  not  sordid,  worldly,  or  artificial.  Our  af- 
fections were  uppermost  in  us,  and  were  tender  and  true. 
And  to  this  state,  so  far  as  we  have  fallen  from  it,  Christ 
teaches  us,  in  his  doctrine  of  conversion,  we  must  return  as 
men  and  women,  if  we  would  be  members  of  his  spiritual 
family,  subjects  and  citizens  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

But  our  Lord's  most  impressive  illustration  of  the  true 
doctrine  of  conversion  is  given  us,  perhaps,  in  the  parable 
of  the  prodigal  son.  In  his  self-sufficiency,  the  prodigal 
had  gone  away  from  his  father,  and  from  all  the  privileges 
and  plenty  of  his  father's  house,  forgetting  alike  his  duty 
and  his  interests  as  a  son.  But  at  last,  in  "  a  far  country, 
he  came  to  himself."  How  much  there  is  in  these  four 
words  expressive  of  the  insensibility  and  moral  unconscious- 
ness of  a  soul  away  from  God,  and  lost  to  all  sense  of  obli- 
gation to  Him,  —  "  he  came  to  himself"  1  Famishing,  he 
began  to  think.  Conscience  and  affection,  so  long  be- 
numbed, asserted  themselves.  Becoming  self-conscious,  his 
eyes  were  opened  to  see  where  and  what  he  was,  in  painful 
contrast  with  what  and  where  he  should  be.  He  thought 
of  his  father,  and  of  the  love  which  had  sheltered  and 
blessed  him,  but  which  he  had  so  trampled  and  forgotten. 
He  thought  of  his  home  and  its  abundance,  while,  the  com- 
panion of  swine,  he  was  perishing  with  hunger.  And  what 
thereupon  did  he  do  ?  Did  he  wait  for  some  magic  influ- 
ence outside  himself  to  transform  him  into  a  loving  and 
obedient  son  ?  Did  he  say.  When  'tis  time,  my  father  will 
somehow  make  me  penitent  and  dutiful,  or  some  kindly 
power  will  take  me  home  ?  No.  He  felt  that  the  respon- 
sibility was  with  himself;  that  he  had  strayed,  and  squan- 
dered, and  sinned  ;  and  that  it  was  for  him  to  repent,  and 
to  resolve  and  act  towards  amendment.  So  he  said,  "I 
will  arise,  and  go  to  my  father.'^  "And  he  arose,  and  came 
to  his  father."  That  was  his  conversion,  his  twining  back, 
his  7'eturn  to  his  duty  and  its  joy.  Nor,  as  we  see  him  re- 
stored to  the  dear  old  home,  clasped,  forgiven,  in  his  father's 
arms,  and  rich  once  more  in  all  the  bounties  of  his  father's 
house,  have  we  occasion  to  look  for  anything  beyond  this 
simple  resolve,  "  I  will  arise,  and  go  to  my  father,''  and  the 


116  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

rising  and  going  which  followed,  to  explain  how  and  why  he 
is  a  converted  man. 

In  this  work  of  conversion,  there  may  be  a  violent  and 
remorseful  experience,  a  marked  crisis,  when  one  is  aware 
of  being  brought  to  a  stand,  and  of  being  born  out  of  the 
lower  into  the  higher  life,  or  not,  according  to  one's  moral 
temperament,  or  the  nature  of  the  antecedent  life.  If  the 
life  has  been  godless,  vicious,  unprincipled,  such  a  crisis  is 
inevitable  ;  and  the  hour  of  spiritual  awakening,  of  reflec- 
tion, self-condemnation,  repentance  and  resolve,  such  as  is 
represented  in  the  prodigal's  case,  and  through  which  only 
can  one  who  has  so  lived  pass  out  of  the  bad  into  the  good, 
or  into  an  attempt  towards  the  good,.?s  this  crisis.  But  if 
one  has  been  living  an  upright  life,  animated  by  honorable 
and  conscientious  motives,  only  has  not  been  religiously 
awakened,  —  has  not  been  affected  by  the  thought  of  God's 
love,  and  by  the  power  of  Christ's  cross,  and  so  has  not 
been  moved  to  prayer  and  a  determined  self-dedication  to 
God,  — then  there  is  no  occasion  for  any  such  violent  crisis. 
The  thing  needed  is  a  profound  and  thorough  awakening  of 
the  heart  —  a  subduing  sense  of  the  sinfulness  of  all  with- 
holding of  one's  self  from  the  love  of  God  and  the  religious 
life,  in  a  consciousness  of  direct  and  personal  obligation. 
One  may  say.  At  such  a  time,  pointing  to  place  and  date, 
I  was  aroused  to  reflection,  penitence  and  religious  concern, 
and  resolved,  God  helping  me,  to  turn  directly  about,  and 
give  myself  to  a  life  of  prayer,  and  spiritual  culture,  and 
Christian  endeavor.  Another  may  say.  As  I  compare  my 
feelings  and  the  present  tone  and  aims  of  my  life  with  what 
they  were  one  year,  or  five,  or  ten  years  ago,  I  am  sensible 
that  a  marked  change  has  taken  place  in  me  ;  but  it  has 
been  so  gradual,  and,  amidst  the  influences  by  which  I  have 
been  surrounded,  I  have  been  led  so  imperceptibly  and  al- 
most unconsciously  to  be  more  thoughtful,  prayerful,  and 
religiously  dutiful,  that  really  I  cannot  fix  any  time  when 
the  change  occurred.  And  still  another  may  say,  I  do  not 
remember  when  I  did  not  love  God  and  pray  to  Him,  or 
when  the  thought  of  Ilim  was  not  precious  to  me,  or  when 
I  was  without  the  resolve  to  try  to  servo  and  enjoy  Ilim. 
But  such  differences  as  to  hoiu  or  when  are  of  no  importance. 


CONVERSION.  117 

The  vital  question  is,  Is  the  man  or  woman  pure,  devout, 
religiously  consecrated  ?  Is  he  or  she  like  a  little  child,  in 
the  sense  Christ  intended,  loving-  God,  loving  the  Saviour, 
and  making  it  a  constant  thought  and  oflbrt  to  be  good  and 
to  do  good  in  a  religious  spirit  ?  If  so,  then  no  matter 
about  the  hoiv,  the  wlcen,  or  the  ivliere.  If  one  was  never 
other  than  such  a  person,  then  conversion  was  not  needed, 
—  only  persistence  and  growth,  as  one  going  right  docs 
not  need  to  turn,  only  to  press  forward.  If  one  has  been 
different,  and  is  now  thoughtful,  reverent,  unselfish,  godly, 
■then  this  transition,  whether  sudden  or  gradual,  —  whether 
so  marked  in  the  book  of  experience  and  memory  that  time 
and  place  can  be  exactly  named,  or  otherwise,  —  is  the  con- 
version required. 

And  this  being,  as  we  believe,  the  Bible  doctrine  of  con- 
version, it  is  for  this  reason  the  doctrine  on  which,  theoreti- 
cally, we  insist  —  insist  with  great  pertinacity  whenever  it  is 
attacked,  or  we  hear  the  necessity  of  '  a  miraculous  change 
of  heart '  asserted.  But  how  is  it  with  xxs  jjractically?  Are 
we,  in  our  labors,  systematically  aiming  at  the  conversion 
of  the  unawakened,  as  really  the  thing  of  primary  and  com- 
manding importance  we  theoretically  allege  it  to  be  ?  Are 
we  anxiously  training  our  children,  in  our  homes  and 
Sunday-schools,  and  directing  and  toning  our  own  lives, 
and  doing  all  we  do  with  eager  and  engrossing  concern 
towards  this  end,  counting  all  other  success  as  no  success 
except  as  this  is  realized  ?  Of  not  a  few,  these  inquiries 
can  be  answered  in  the  affirmative  ;  but  can  they  be  so  an- 
swered to  any  such  extent  as  the  conditions  of  our  spiritual 
vitality  and  power  as  a  Church  undeniably  require  ?  Who 
will  venture  to  say  that  they  can  be  ?  And  if  they  cannot 
be,  conceding  that  there  is  any  reality  in  what  the  New 
Testament  teaches  on  this  point,  and  what  we,  theoretically, 
so  contend  for  as  the  truth,  is  it  not  entitled  to  a  larger  and 
more  prominent  place  in  our  thought  and  life,  and  are  we 
not  summoned,  in  a  more  urgent  and  personal  administration 
of  the  Gospel  call,  "Repent  ye,  therefore,  and  tia'ii"  to  God, 
to  make  a  New  Departure  in  this  regard  ?  What  but  this, 
in  fact,  should  be  the  end  of  our  labors  ? 

Is  there  any  doubt  wliat  was  the  end  for  which  Christ  and 


118  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

the  Apostles  labored  ?  Go  to  the  New  Testament,  and  see. 
Constantly,  under  one  name  or  another  —  sometimes  as 
Repentance,  sometimes  as  Conversion,  sometimes  as  the 
New  Birth,  or  the  birth  from  above,  sometimes  as  simple 
Quickening-,  —  this  generic  idea  of  spiritual  awakening  and 
return  to  God  was  the  burden  of  our  Lord's  teachings  ;  and 
as  invariably  his  one  word  was.  Only  through  this  is  there, 
or  can  there  be,  for  any  soul,  anywhere,  enti'ance  into  my 
kingdom.  So  with  the  Apostles.  Wherever  they  went, 
"  testifying  both  to  the  Jews  and  also  to  the  Greeks  repent- 
ance toward  God,  and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ," 
their  incessant  message  was,  whatever  other  message  they 
might  bear,  "  Eepent  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you,  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins  ;"  "Re- 
pent and  be  converted  [turn,  convert  yourselves],  that  your 
sins  may  be  blotted  out."  And,  seeing  thus  Avhat  their 
ministry  was,  can  we  for  a  moment  question  wliat  it  would 
be,  were  they  bodilj''  on  the  earth  to-day  ?  The  state  of 
things  to  which  they  then  addressed  themselves  was,  in 
substance,  not  at  all  exceptional.  Special  circumstances 
and  exposures  were  difiercnt ;  but  essential  facts  and  needs 
were  the  same  as  now.  Just  as  much  now  as  then,  men  are 
wandering  from  God,  perishing  in  their  absence  from  Him. 
Now,  as  then,  spiritual  things  are  forgotten,  and  flesh  is 
absorbing  soul.  Sin  is  no  whit  less  a  curse  now  than  it 
was  then  ;  error  is  no  less  a  calamity  ;  worldlincss  is  no 
less  a  mistake  and  a  wrong  ;  souls  are  no  less  in  peril.  In 
no  respect,  on  no  account,  did  men  then  need  to  bo  aroused, 
stimulated,  converted,  more  than  this  very  hour.  The  same 
interests  are  at  stake  ;  the  same  motives  appeal ;  the  same 
necessities  press  ;  and  as  I  take  my  New  Testament,  and 
follow  our  Lord  and  his  chosen  ones  in  their  work,  and  then 
think  of  them  as  preaching  among  us  to-day,  I  hear  their 
voices  ringing  out  the  same  rebuking,  pleading,  awakening- 
message  as  of  old.  No  doubt  they  would  expose  error. 
No  doubt  they  would  frame  arguments,  and  set  forth  doc- 
trine. No  doubt  they  would  carefully  adjust  themselves  to 
existing  conditions,  intellectual  and  social,  and  appropriate 
for  their  purpose  all  that  science  discloses,  all  tliat  philan- 
thropy has  achieved,  all  that  our  improved  civilization  sug- 


CONVERSION.  119 

gests.  But  underneath  and  above  all,  their  one  most  im- 
portunate word  everywhere  would  be,  0  souls  immortal  !  0 
harassed,  misguided,  wandering  ones  !  awake  from  your 
mammon-worship,  your  selfishness,  your  love  of  pleasure  ; 
awake  from  your  engrossment  in  this  world,  your  dull 
content  amidst  your  social  and  political  corruption,  your 
sin  ;  repent,  turn,  and  give  yourselves  to  God.  How  else 
could  they  do  their  work  of  spiritual  quickening  and  regen- 
eration ?  And  if  this  would  be  their  method  of  labor,  and 
we,  having  their  Gospel,  have  succeeded  to  their  work,  is  it 
for  us  to  content  ourselves  with  mere  criticisms  and  argu- 
ments, with  moral  homilies  and  pretty  essays,  with  textual 
explanations  and  doctrinal  enforcements,  however  able  or 
eloquent  ?  Are  we  in  the  line  of  duty  if  we  do  not  take 
up  the  message  that  would  so  certainly  be  theirs,  and  make 
it  with  equal  emphasis  ours  ?  How  else  are  we  to  prove 
ourselves  Christ's  followers,  or  to  fulfil  at  all  the  ends  for 
which  he  came,  or  the  errand  with  which,  in  his  behalf,  we 
are  charged  ? 

For  the  sake  of  others,  we  need  to  make  this  New  De- 
parture. The  spiritual  interests  of  all  Christendom  are 
seriously  sufibring  for  the  theory  of  conversion  which  we 
represent,  duly  put  to  use.  The  disastrous  results  of  the  tra- 
ditional doc^:ine  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated.  Let  us  gladly 
admit  all  that  can  justly  bo  said  in  its  favor.  Admit  the 
high,  character  and  spiritual  earnestness  of  many  of  those 
who  think  themselves  examples  of  the  supernatural  renewal, 
the  necessity  of  which  it  affirms.  Admit  that  by  means  of 
revivals  and  excitements,  engineered  on  the  assumption  of 
periodical  visitations  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  work  this  re- 
newal, considerable  numbers  are,  from  time  to  time,  reli- 
giously awakened,  so  tliat  the  churches  of  the  several  '  evan- 
gelical '  sects,  thus  recruited,  are,  as  the  rule,  much  larger 
than  ours,  or  any  others  organized  on  a  like  basis.  But  all 
this,  alas!  is  only  one  side  —  and  a  very  small  side  —  of 
the  case.  It  is  as  nothing  compared  with  the  record  for 
evil  wliich  the  received  theory  has  made,  and  is  making, 
against  itself 

Think  of  the  mischievous  effect  of  the  reliance  on  revi- 
vals and  special  occasions  thus  encouraged,  as  illustrated  in 


120  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE, 

the  statement  of  Catharine  Beecher,  "that  when  revivals 
came,  it  was  [thought]  best  to  read  the  Bible,  and  pray, 
and  go  to  meeting,  but  that,  at  other  times,  it  was  [held  to 
be]  of  little  use." 

Think  of  those  naturally  devout  and  thoughtful,  anxious 
to  '  be  converted,'  but  hopelessly  perplexed,  baffled,  thrown 
back  upon  themselves,  confounded  and  disheartened  in  all 
their  religious  endeavors.  So,  Miss  Beecher  tells  us,  it 
was  with  her.  Desiring  nothing  so  much  as  '  to  become  a 
Christian,'  and  yet  assured  that  it  was  her  '  obstinate  un- 
willingness to  do  what  was  I'equired  '  that  stood  in  the  way, 
she  at  length,  in  her  fruitless  wrestlings  and  agony,  reacted 
into  '  an  outburst  of  indignation  and  abhorrence,'  disgusted 
with  God  and  everj'-thing  pertaining  to  religion,  as  she  had 
been  taught  concerning  them.  And  she  only  represents  an 
innumerable  company  of  others.  An  intelligent  friend, 
reared  in  'orthodoxy,'  said  to  me  not  long  since.  None 
but  one  educated  in  these  ideas  can  begin  to  understand  the 
confusion  and  wretchedness  they  occasion  those  at  all  sensi- 
tive and  religiously  disposed.  Those  who  care  nothiog 
about  religion  get  along  well  enough.  But  the  more  ear- 
nest and  thoughtful  people  are,  the  more  confounded  and 
distressed  they  are  likely  to  be,  as,  praying  and  struggling 
for  the  '  change  of  heart '  supposed  to  be  necessary,  they 
fail  to  obtain  it,  and  wonder  why.  It  was  so  in  my  case, 
she  continued.  I  was  scarcely  more  than  eleven  years  of 
age  when  I  became  deeply  exercised  in  respect  to  conver- 
sion. I  was  told  that  God  alone  could  give  me  '  a  new 
heart,'  and,  at  the  same  time,  that  I  must  obtain  it  myself. 
So  I  prayed,  and  read,  and  agonized.  I  besought  God  to 
give  me  what  I  needed,  and,  if  in  anything  I  had  failed  to 
do  my  part,  to  show  nie  what  was  required,  and  to  help  me 
do  it.  Still  conversion  did  not  come.  At  length,  wea- 
ried and  tortured,  I  became  utterly  discouraged,  not  know- 
ing what  I  could  further  do,  until  finally  1  settled  into  a 
torpid  and  desperate  state,  in  which  the  very  mention  of 
religion  became  offensive  to  me.  I  could  not  bear  to  be  in 
any  way  even  approached  on  the  subject ;  and  a  dear  old 
friend,  my  Sabbath-school  superintendent,  who  used  to  call 
to  talk  with  me,  grow  on  this  account  to   be  so  absolutely 


CONVERSION.  121 

disagreeable,  that  it  painfully  excited  me  to  sec  him  coming 
towards  the  house.  This  was  my  condition  for  years  — ■ 
years  the  anguish  and  darkness  of  which  I  shall  never  for- 
get. And  1  am  but  one  of  many  such  sufferers.  Vast 
numbers  have  thus  had  their  hearts  wrung  and  their  lives 
shadowed,  while  others  have  been  driven  into  defiance  or 
despair. 

And  then,  still  further,  showing  quite  another  work  of 
evil,  think  of  the  multitudes  trained  in  this  common  doc- 
trine of  conversion,  some  of  whom  are  more  or  less  identi- 
fied with  Christian  congregations,  but  most  of  whom  are 
outside  all  religious  associations,  in  whom,  so  far  as  such  a 
result  is  possible,  it  has  destroyed  all  sense  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility touching  a  religious  life.  Teaching  that  man  is 
impotent  for  his  own  conversion,  and  that  the  whole  work 
is  God's,  to  move  when,  where  and  in  whom  He  pleases,  it 
has  infected  the  entire  popular  mind  —  including  many  who 
in  terms  reject  it  —  with  the  idea  that  those  who  are  to  be- 
come Christians  are  somehow,  at  some  time,  to  be  arrested 
and  wrought  upon  by  God's  omnipotent  Spirit,  and  thus  at 
once,  without  agency  of  theirs,  transformed  into  regenerate 
souls.  Naturally,  so  taught,  the  great  mass,  whether  inside 
or  outside  the  circle  of  religious  influence,  are  stolidly  in- 
different to  all  religious  appeals,  feeling  that,  when  God 
pleases  to  make  them  good,  they  will  become  so,  and  that, 
in  the  mean  time,  the  domain  of  religion  is  altogether  a  for- 
eign country  to  them.  How  else  should  they  feel,  the 
theory  in  which  they  have  been  educated  being  true  ?  It 
is  only  surprising  that  such  teaching  has  not  been  more  uni- 
versally disastrous,  and  that  the  religious  instinct  and  the 
sense  of  religious  responsibility  have  been  strong  enough  to 
assert  themselves  in  spite  of  it  even  to  the  extent  they  have. 
For  when  people  have  been  drilled  into  the  belief  that  any 
effective  purpose  towards  a  holy  life  is  possible  only  as  God 
miraculously  creates  or  imparts  it,  what  is  there  for  them, 
acting  at  all  on  the  lesson,  except  to  renounce  all  concern 
about  such  a  life,  and  to  feel  that  there  is  nothing  for  them 
to  do  but  to  devote  themselves  to  this  world  as  inclination 
may  prompt,  until  God  shall  be  pleased  to  take  them  in 
hand  ?     Catharine  Beecher,  from  whom  I  have  already  twice 


122  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

quoted,  and  whose  competency  .is  a  witness  no  one  will  dis- 
pute, giving  her  experience,  testifies  that  this  is  the  natural 
effect  of  the  theory — to  "lead  to  an  entire  neglect  of 
all  religious  concerns."  Is  it  too  much  to  say,  indeed,  that 
this  idea,  directly  or  indirectly,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  nearly 
all  the  religious  procrastination  and  unconcern  which  occa- 
sion us  so  much  regret  ?  In  the  words  of  a  good  man  now 
departed,  "  The  two  notions  of  the  Innate  Corruption  of  Hu- 
man Nature  and  of  Miraculous  Conversion  are  actually  con- 
suming the  religious  life  —  of  New  England,"  he  said  ;  but 
with  broader  truth,  wo  may  say,  of  the  whole  Christian 
world  :  "  i.  o.,  they  are  filling  our  families  and  houses  of  wor- 
ship, our  towns  and  cities,  with  those  who  think  that  they 
have  no  interest  in  religion,  or  the  church,  except  in  the 
contingency"  of  this  supernatural  'change  of  heart,'  and 
who,  in  consequence,  are  postponing  all  religious  thought 
or  action  on  the  supposition  that,  by  and  b}'',  religion  will 
come  to  them,  and  God's  work  of  grace  be  instantaneously 
done  Avithin  them. 

And  yet  once  more,  reflect  on  the  spectacle  presented  on 
almost  every  gallows  as  murderers  and  criminals,  hardened 
in  their  lives  of  sin,  and  without  the  remotest  conception  of 
the  real  work  of  religion  in  the  heart,  boastfully  tell  of  the 
change  which  has  come  to  them,  and  protest  their  assurance 
that  they  are  to  swing  at  once  into  glory  !  Such  spectacles 
are  an  offence  and  a  disgust  to  all  thoughtful  people,  and 
burlesquing  the  sacred  name  of  religion,  are  serving,  as  of- 
ten as  they  occur,  to  bring  it  into  contempt  as  a  thing  only 
of  talk  and  shallow  cant.  But  every  such  spectacle  is  the 
legitimate  jDroduct  of  the  common  doctrine  of  conversion  ; 
and  multitudes  of  the  depraved  and  abandoned,  so  far  as  they 
ever  think  of  God  or  the  future,  are  expecting,  on  the  au- 
thority of  this  doctrine,  to  get  into  heaven  through  just  such 
an  instantaneous  change,  which,  as  they  imagine,  will  wipe 
out  all  their  sins,  unpunished,  transform  them  into  blood- 
washed  saints,  and  put  them  safely  at  God's  right  hand. 

These,  then,  being  some  of  the  deplorable  results  of  the 
current  theory,  are  we  not,  for  the  sake  of  all  the  interests 
thus  affected  for  evil,  urgently  called  to  make  our  doctrine 
of  conversion  more  vitally  a  power  for  the  ends  it  is  de- 


CONVERSION.  123 

signed  to  servo  ?  There  is  nothing'  else  that  can  supplant 
the  common  doctrine  and  correct  its  false  impressions  ;  and 
except  as  this  is  supplanted,  it  will  go  on  begetting  the 
same  ruinous  misconceptions,  filling  our  communities  with 
the  same  chronic  irrcligiousness,  expecting  God  to  make  it 
religious,  and  sowing  the  sanie  seed-tares  that,  these  many 
generations,  have  borne  such  melancholy  fruit,  in  lives  know- 
ing so  little  of  God,  and  Christ,  and  spiritual  sensibility,  and 
so  invincibly  wedded  to  indifference  and  the  world.  The 
only  remedy  for  the  evils  of  error  is  the  truth. 

But  we  need,  also  and  especially,  to  take  this  New  Depart- 
ure for  our  own  sake  — that  we  ma}''  fitly  express  and  duly 
bjonor  the  faith  we  profess,  and  make  our  Church  the  living- 
instrument  of  awakening  and  saving  men  which,  as  a  Church 
of  Christ,  it  ought  to  be.  What,  finall}^  does  this  Church  of 
oui-s  stand  for  ?  Immediately,  it  stands  for  many  things  :  — 
for  warfare  against  error,  and  for  the  exposition  and  defence 
of  the  truth  ;  for  God's  Fatherhood  ;  for  man's  brotherhood  ; 
for  God's  instant  and  constant  moral  rule  in  the  life  of  souls 
and  the  life  of  the  I'ace  ;  for  the  unescapable  retributions  of 
sin  ;  and,  sublime  climax  of  all,  for  the  everlasting  unity  of 
our  race,  and  for  Christ's  certain  ultimate  triumph  in  bring- 
ino:  all  souls  home  to  God.  Valiant  and  effective  service, 
as  has  been  said  in  preceding  pages,  has  our  Church  done, 
standing  for  these  things  in  the  past ;  and  not  one  of  them 
is  a  thing  to  be  overlooked  or  forgotten.  Any  New  Depart- 
ure that  should  propose  to  ignore  or  forget  them,  or  any 
one  of  them,  would  be  a  departure  for  evil  and  not  for  good 

—  a  sacrifice  of  principle  and  a  waste  of  power.  But  ivhy 
does  our  Church  stand  for  these  things  ?  For  no  mere  pur- 
pose of  theory  or  argument,  of  attack  or  defence,  surely ; 
but  only  because  they  are  so  many  means  for  something  be- 
yond. Our  Church,  if  indeed  it  be  a  Church  of  Christ,  as  we 
insist,  stands  finally  for  just  what  the  Bible  stands  for ;  for 
just  what  the  cross  of  Christ  stands  for  ;  for  just  what  God's 
loving  and  holy  spirit  is  always  pleading  and   striving  for : 

—  for  the  awakening  of  the  indifferent ;  for  the  conversion 
of  the  sinful ;  for  the  salvation  of  the  perishing  ;  to  put  the 
light  of  a  Divine  life  into  dull  and  earth-bound  eyes  ;  and  for 
anything  else  only  as  helps  to  these  ends.     And  standing  for 


124:  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

these  ends,  everything'  in  our  condition  and  in  the  condition 
of  the  church  and  the  world  is  conspiring  to  summon  us  to 
give  them  the  prominence  they  deserve.  We  have  been 
doing  one  great  work  —  that  of  doctriually  enlightening  and 
leavening  the  church  and  the  world.  God  is  now  calling  us 
to  another  and  greater  —  that  of  spiritually  quickening  souls, 
that  the  tides  of  a  Diviner  life  may  flow  into  them. 

As  was  intimated  at  the  close  of  our  first  chapter,  the  one 
imperious  demand  of  this  time  —  as,  indeed,  it  has  been  of 
all  former  times,  is  religious  sensibility  ;  a  profounder  con- 
sciousness of  God  ;  spiritual  arrest  and  guidance.  The  lo- 
comotive, shaking  our  towns  and  cities  beneath  the  thunder 
of  its  wheels,  and  finding  no  wilderness  too  dense  or  inac- 
cessible to  be  pierced  with  the  shrill  scream  of  its  whistle, 
fitly  s^^mbolizes  the  material  enterprise  that  is  mastering  the 
globe,  making  or  stealing  money,  and  pushing  everywhere 
for  'more.'  But  the  locomotive  is  only  force,  and  without 
the  controlling  presence  of  mind,  rushes  to  certain  ruin. 
And  so  all  these  things  that  so  signalize  our  time  —  our 
science,  so  bold  and  inquisitive,  and  much  of  it  so  godless, 

—  our  inventions,  so  fruitful, — our  literature,  so  copious, 

—  our  trading,  so  eager,  —  our  industries,  so  manifold,  and 
some  of  them  so  titanic,  —  our  material  energy  so  many- 
sided,  so  restless,  so  unconquei'able,  are  but  so  many  expres- 
sions of  another  kind  of  foi'ce,  which  quite  as  much  needs 
the  controlling  presence  of  religion,  and  can  only  result  in 
moral  collapse  and  decay  without  it.  It  is  the  sad  but  sig- 
nificant warning  of  history,  that  the  periods  most  marked 
by  the  triumphs  of  art  and  intellect  have  been  among  the 
periods  of  most  terrible  social  wreck  and  national  overthrow. 
The  question  of  engrossing  concern  to-day  is.  Is  this  period 
to  repeat  the  warning?  Great  reason  have  we  to  be  thank- 
ful for  its  intellectual  reach  and  conquests,  and  for  its  ma- 
terial scope  and  vigor.  But  yonder,  so  sure  as  God's 
throne  stands,  is  the  vortex  into  which  we  are  to  plunge  if 
these  be  not  possessed  and  sanctified.  Science,  behind  all 
law,  must  see  something  more  than  law,  and  kneel.  Busi- 
ness must  be  conscious  of  interests  more  real  and  enduring-. 
Politics  must  be  made  clean.  Industry  must  toil  in  reverent 
dependence   on  an    unseen  Hand.     Literature    must   make 


CONVERSION.  125 

itself  a  minister  to  something  deeper  than  taste  or  mere 
knowledge.  AH  material  energy  must  confess  a  spiritual 
control.  In  a  word,  God  must  be  the  central  fact  in  life,  or 
disaster  and  death  will  ensue.  And  the  work  of  our 
Church,  freighted  with  truths  so  broad,  so  rational,  so  satis- 
fying alike  to  the  intellect  and  the  heart,  is  to  put  the 
thought  of  God  as  a  living  power,  as  no  other  Church  can, 
into  the  life  of  this  eager,  restless,  world-ridden  time  —  so 
drifting  away  from  the  old  faiths,  and  so  needing  anchorage 
and  inspiration  in  what  is  better.  But  this,  in  its  very  nature, 
is  a  work  of  religious  awakening  and  impulse,  and  can  be 
done  only  as,  making  ourselves  everywhere  an  incarnate  call 
to  repentance  and  consecration,  we  emphasize  what  Christ 
means  by  conversion  as  the  sole  gateway  to  the  highest 
order  of  character,  and  seek  to  make  every  finger  we  point 
heavenward  a  conductor  to  bring  down  among  us  the  elec- 
tric life  of  God.  We  do  nothing,  we  can  do  nothing  to- 
wards the  most  vital  administration  of  the  Gospel,  or  to- 
wards answering  the  deepest  needs  of  souls  or  the  hour, 
except  as  we  thus  labor.  "  One  of  the  things,"  said  Ward 
Beecher,  not  long  ago,  in  his  second  series  of  Lectures  on 
Preaching,  "  that  measure  the  power  of  the  pulpit  is  the 
magnitude  of  living  power  it  develops  among  the  people." 
And  for  like  reasons,  the  thing  which  finally  determines  the 
worth  of  a  church  to  the  world  is  the  measure  of  spiritual 
power  it  puts  into  it.  For  this  reason,  conversion,  as  the 
New  Testament  enforces  it,  being  the  key  to  the  whole 
process  of  Christian  experience,  —  the  cardinal  fact  in  the 
Christian  life,  our  usefulness  depends  finally  upou  our  ear- 
nestness and  fidelity  at  just  this  point,  and  the  use  we  make 
of  whatever  else  we  believe  or  preach  with  reference  to  this 
end. 

In  the  prominence  they  give  to  the  necessity  "^f  conver- 
sion, notwithstanding  they  are  so  seriously  mistaken  in  their 
conception  of  its  nature,  is  one  of  the  explanations  of  what- 
ever religious  effectiveness  our  brethren  of  other  churches 
have.  Their  errors  concerning  it  are  the  occasions  of  wide- 
spread harm,  as  we  have  seen  ;  but  we  cannot  deny  that,  de- 
spite their  errors,  they  are  doing  something  to  arouse  and 
religiously  impress  souls  :   and  for  whatever  genuine  Chris- 


126  OVU  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

tian  work  they  are  doing,  let  us  thank  God.  Have  we  not 
much  to  learn  from  them  in  this  particular  ?  Our  theory  of 
conversion  is  different  from  theirs  ;  but  no  whit  should  we 
be  behind  them,  on  this  account,  in  tlie  constancy  and  ear- 
nestness with  which  we  urge  the  thing  itself.  We  should 
rather  exceed  them  in  these  things  :  for  who  see  in  sin,  in 
spiritual  deadness  and  unconcern,  in  absence  from  God  and 
unconsciousness  of  Him,  things  in  themselves  so  teri/ible  as 
we  ?  Even  so  distinguished  an  expositor  of  '  orthodoxy  '  as 
Dr.  Enoch  Pond,  in  a  late  paper  on  the  growing  '  evangelical ' 
"  dispositionto  fraternize  with  Universalists,"  protests  against 
it  for  the  reason,  that  if  the  idea  is  relinquished  that  men  are 
"  all  under  sentence  of  eternal  death  and  exposed  to  suffer 
forever  for  their  sins,"  "the  exigency  which  demanded  the 
interposition  and  death  of  the  Son  of  God"  is  "quite  re- 
moved," and  "  no  man  can  see  why  Christ  should  have 
died  "  !  And  this  but  illustrates  the  chronic  blindness  and 
insensibility  of  our  '  evangelical '  brethren  to  the  intrinsic 
curse  of  sin.  It  is  not  sin,  but  the  punishment  of  sin  that 
seems  to  them  the  terrible  thing,  furnishing,  as  Dr.  Pond 
avers,  the  sole  reason  why  all  heaven  should  be  moved  for 
human  redemption.  We  see  the  terrible  thing  in  sin  itself, 
and  are  thus  furnished  with  corresponding  reason  to  plead 
with  men  to  repent  of  and  abandon  it.  And  as  to  the  means 
whereby  souls  are  to  be  reached,  awakened  and  turned  to 
God,  who,  if  we  will  but  use  tliem,  have  motives  so  potent, 
or  can  begin  to  do  so  much  as  we  ? 

What  Ave  most  want  is  reality  and  intensity  of  faith  in  the 
theories  we  talk,  and  the  zeal  born  of  such  a  faith.  "  You 
Universalists,"  said  a  Baptist  minister  at  one  of  our  General 
Convention  Conference  Meetings,*  "  have  the  grandest  ideas  ; 
and  if  you  were  only  true  to  them,  j^ou  would  sweep  the 
world."  And  this  is  what  we  are  here  for  —  spiritually 
to  master  and  possess  the  world.  Do  we  actually  believe  in 
conversion  as  a  requirement  of  tlie  Gospel,  or  as  a  necessity 
for  souls  ?  If  so,  it  is  for  us  to  show  it  by  methods  of  labor, 
and  an  ardor,  and  an  amount  of  results  corresponding.  "  Hast 
thou  faith?"   said  the   Apostle,   to    the    Romans;     "have 

*  At  Providence,  R.  I.,  1858. 


CONVERSION.  127 

it  to  thyself  before  God.  Huppy  is  he  that  condenineth 
not  liimself  in  that  thing  which  he  alloweth."  And  these 
are  God's  words  to  us  as  a  Church,  to-day.  Our  period  of 
simple  preparation  is  over.  Our  period  for  fruitage  is  here. 
More  talk  about  conversion,  and  the  glorious  things  that 
are  to  come  of  Christ's  saving  work  through  it,  will  no  longer 
do.  We  must  give  evidence  of  the  thing  itself,  and  show 
ourselves  practically  in  earnest  to  induce  and  promote  it. 
The  right  liind  of  talk  has  its  use,  and  argument,  if  I'eally 
argument,  seldom  fails  to  make  iteelf  duly  felt ;  but  Christ 
was  not  born  to  modily  opinions  simply,  nor  merely  to 
leaven  the  world  with  larger  and  freer  thought,  or  with 
broader  conceptions  of  God,  or  clearer  conceptions  of  im- 
mortality. He  was  born  to  regenerate  souls  and  change  life  ; 
born  '  that  he  might  bear  witness  to  the  truth,'  indeed,  but 
only  that  those  believing  the  truth  might  be  sanctified 
through  it ;  and  if  his  kingdom  is  ever  to  triumph,  it  must 
triumph,  not  through  doctrinal  assent,  or  a,nj  amount  of 
theoretical  assertion,  however  strenuously  or  ably  argued, 
but  through  the  aggregation  and  earnest  effort  of  souls  con- 
verted to  God,  and  quickened  to  newness  of  life  in  His  ser- 
vice. On  no  other  terms  can  we,  to  deepest  or  widest  effect, 
compel  the  world's  attention,  command  its  respect,  or  make 
ourselves  felt  as  a  recreative  spiritual  force  in  it. 

God  be  thanked  for  all  that  tells  of  the  progress  we  have 
made  —  for  the  literatui'e  we  have  created  ;  for  the  schools 
and  colleges  we  have  founded  ;  for  the  splendid  church  edi- 
fices that  are  bearing  our  name  ;  for  every  sign  of  our 
growth  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  material  strength  ;  and 
God  be  thanked  even  more  for  all  that  is  indicating  what  we 
have  been  as  a  leavening  influence  among  the  creeds,  and. 
in  the  thought  of  the  country  and  the  world.  All  these 
have  their  importance.  But  sinful  souls  awakened,  the 
thoughtless  becoming  thoughtful  and  penitent,  the  prayer- 
less  becoming  praj'erful,  the  worldly  and  unbelieving  moved 
to  cry,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  and  setting 
themselves  to  do  what  is  required  — these  are  more  than 
books,  or  schools,  or  beautiful  or  costly  temples,  —  more 
even  than  changed  opinions,  or  broader  and  better  concep- 
tions of  religious   truth,   as   signs  of  the  true  life,  and   as 


128  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

means  of  Church-power.  Other  things  are  helps,  steps  to- 
wards the  ends  desired  ;— these  are  necessities,  the  ends 
themselves,  without  which  no  church  can  long  fail  to  die 
out,  or  to  be  cut  down,  as  the  Lord  of  the  vineyai'd  asks, 
"  Why  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  " 

On  every  principle  of  highest  moral  influence,  and  by  vir- 
tue of  every  motive  than  can  most  affect  hearts,  we  should 
be  the  people  most  electric  with  spiritual  life,  and  the  Church 
most  effective  in  awakening  and  turning  souls  to  God.  Are 
we  so  in  fact  ?  Alas,  can  we  say,  Yes  ?  How  few  of  us, 
comparatively,  are  glowing  with  religious  fervor,  under 
the  kindling  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  1  How  many,  fail- 
ing to  appreciate  XJniversalism,  are  as  yet  content  to  be  only 
servants  and  strangers,  in  the  outer  courts  of  the  temple, 
instead  of  pressing  on  as  sons  and  daughters  into  the  inner- 
most household  of  God  I 

Is  it  said  that  the  proportion  of  such  among  us,  all  things 
considered,  is  not  greater  than  among  our  '  evangelical ' 
neighbors  ?  Perhaps  it  is  not ;  but  this  avails  nothing  for 
our  excuse.  There  is  no  ground  for  comparison  in.  this  re- 
spect between  us  and  them.  Their  theory  of  conversion, 
as  we  have  seen,  tends  logically  and  necessarily  to  religious 
delay  and  unconcern,  and  every  soul  among  them,  awakened 
and  striving  towards  the  religious  life,  is  so  in  spite  of  the 
hindcrances  and  discouragements  it  interposes.  Oar  theory, 
no  less  recognizing  our  dependence  upon  God  and  the  agency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  tells  us  that  it  is  for  us,  under  God, 
to  turn  to  Him,  and,  summoning  us  to  the  action  required, 
presses  us  with  the  fact  that,  so  long  as  we  remain  una- 
wakened,  we  are  ourselves  at  fault.  How,  then,  can  those 
professing  to  believe  Universalism  justify  themselves  to  their 
own  consciences  in  an  unawakened,  or  non-religious  life  ? 
Or,  since  in  this  same  view  we  arc  shown  how  much  the 
work  of  human  conversion  and  amendment  depends  upon 
our  efforts  to  promote  it,  how  can  they  feel  otlierwise  than 
constantly  soil-condemned  if  they  fail  to  be  earnest  and  ac- 
tive in  their  endeavors,  according  to  their  ability  and  op- 
portunity, not  only  to  convince  those  about  them  of  the 
truth,  but  to  awaken  them  to  a  sense  of  duty  and  to  lead 
them  to  God  ?     Alas  !  lor  the  errors,  misconcei^tious  and 


CONVERSION.  129 

balf-bcliefs  which  prevent  so  many  from  seeing  and  feeling 
the  meaning  of  our  truth,  and  which  thus  make  them,  in- 
stead of  the  earnest  workers  for  themselves  and  others  they 
ought  to  be,  cold,  inactive,  without  enthusiasm,  caring  noth- 
ing for  harmony  and  intimacy  with  God  and  the  Saviour  for 
themselves,  and  caring  as  little  for  the  conversion  and  hap- 
piness of  others.  How  much  such  lose  for  themselves  ! 
How  much  our  Church  loses  because  of  them  I 

0,  for  a  just  insight  by  Universalists  into  tire  meaning  of 
Universalism  as  the  Gospel  of  the  world's  quickening  and 
redemption,  and  simple  consistency  with  it !  If  we  could 
but  have  these,  what  an  awakening  we  should  see  !  What 
a  melting  of  liearts  !  What  renunciations  of  indifference  1 
What  a  bending  of  knees  !  What  a  clothing  of  lives  in  the 
beauty  of  new  and  higher  purposes  1  What  demonstra- 
tions of  the  spirit !  What  resolves  and  struggles  towards 
personal  holiness  !  What  earnestness  for  the  enlightenment 
and  salvation  of  others  !  And  as  the  result,  how  our  minis- 
ters would  all  burn  with  Apostolic  zeal  and  fervor,  as  some 
are  burning !  How  our  parishes  would  be  increased  and 
vivified !  How  our  whole  Church  would  be  pervaded  with 
the  life  of  Christ,  and  become,  beyond  all  precedents,  a 
power  to  arouse  and  animate  souls  towards  goodness,  in  his 
discipleship  !  Why  cannot  we  have  these  things,  the  re- 
sults of  a  becoming  thoughtfulness,  insuring  the  New  De- 
parture to  which  in  this  respect  we  are  called,  and  so  mak- 
ing us  mighty  for  the  conversion  of  sinners  and  the  widen- 
ing Christianization  of  the  world  ? 
9 


CHAPTER  IX. 

EXPERIMENTAL   EELIGION. 

Our  second  chapter  dealt  at  length  with  the  lack  of  dis- 
tinctively religious  results  which  we  have  to  confess  as  we 
sum  up  the  work  of  our  First  Century,  and  with  the  ques- 
tion of  its  causes.  In  the  enumeration  of  these  causes,  one 
was  left  for  separate  mention  here.  It  is,  that  our  generally 
accepted  theory  of  Religion  has. not  recognized  the  neces- 
sity, or  even  the  importance,  of  the  experimental  type  of  it. 
Not  that,  as  a  people,  we  have  ever  lacked  either  faith  in 
religion,  or  respect  for  it  —  as  we  have  understood  it. 
Any  statement  that  we  have  lacked  either  of  these  things, 
by  whomsoever  made,  would  grossly  misrepresent  us.  But 
while  we  have  not  lacked  in  these  respects,  and  have  never 
been  without  those  who  have  insisted  as  strenuously  as  any 
others  on  the  necessity  of  Experimental  Religion,  the  con- 
ception of  religion  which  has  most  prevailed,  and  which, 
though  not  so  widely  as  in  former  years,  is  still  prevalent 
among  us,  is  that  it  is  a  good  conscience  towards  man,  rather 
than  a  pious  heart  towards  God.  A  one-sided,  because  too 
literal,  interpretation  has  been  put  on  James'  words,  "Pure 
religion  and  undetiled  befoi-e  God  and  the  Father  is  this, 
To  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to 
keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world." 

Nor  is  this  state  of  things  surprising  in  view  of  all  the 
facts.  The  several  explanations  set  forth  in  Chapter  II.,  all 
have  their  place  in  accounting  for  it.  And  still  another,  of 
much  weight,  must  here  be  added.  Protestiiig  against  Ca- 
tholicism and  Episcopacy,  and  reacting  from  them  and 
their  abuses,  the  Puritans,  renounced  many  things  which  are 
now  seen  to  have  been  not  only  desirable,  but,  in  a  sense, 
essential.  The  result  was  a  most  austere  religious  life  and 
a  singularly  barren  worship,  fitly  symbolized  in  the  bleak 
and  rocky  coast  and  the  inhospitable  soil  to  which  the  Plym- 

130 


EXPERIMENTAL  EELIGION.  131 

outh  pilgrims  came.  In  much  tlie  same  way,  our  concep- 
tion of  relig-iou  was  determined.  As  recently  even  as  the 
year  of  grace,  1865,  a  committee  of  tlie  "  National  Congre- 
gational Council,"  headed  by  no  less  a  man  than  Rev.  Dr. 
Shepard,  of  the  Bangor  Theological  School,  pronounced  it 
a  "  fallacy  "  to  suppose  "  that  converting  men,  making  them 
Christians,  of  course  makes  them  honest  and  benevolent "  I 
But  when  our  movement  began,  this  divorce  between  re- 
ligion and  character  was  not  only  much  more  pronounced, 
but  was  almost  universally  regarded  as,  beyond  question, 
the  right  view  of  the  subject.  Religion  was  supposed,  as 
religion,  to  consist  wholly  in  this  —  that  one  had  '  made  his 
peace  with  God'  in  'a  change  of  heart,'  and  had  become 
scrupulous  in  prayers  and  church-going,  and  earnest  in  zeal 
for  the  salvation  of  his  own  soul  and  of  other  souls  from 
hell.  Morality,  chai'acter,  was  thouglit  to  be  quite  another 
thing.  An  unimpeachable  life,  full  of  all  social  kindness 
and  charities,  was  depreciated  as  but  '  filthy  rags  '  ;  and  it 
by  no  means  followed,  because  a  man  was  conspicuously 
'  pious,'  that  he  was  honest,  benevolent  or  trustworthy. 
Naturally,  then,  protesting  so  vigorously  against  the  theo- 
logical errors  they  assailed,  and  disgusted  with  a  pietism  so 
hollow  that,  whatever  might  be  its  meaning  towards  God,  it 
could,  in  no  single  particular,  be  accepted  as  a  pledge  of  any 
good  or  right  thing  towards  man,  our  pioneers  swung  into 
the  other  extreme.  Specially  emphasizing,  in  their  rebound, 
the  long  ignored  duties  to  man  as  cardinal  requirements  with- 
out which  there  could  be  no  religion  worth  the  name,  they 
failed  duly  to  consider  the  other  side.  As  the  consequence, 
the  phrases  '  experiencing  religion  '  and  '  experimental  re- 
ligion,' fell  into  discredit  and  disuse  among  us.  They  and 
the  idea  they  represent  became  distasteful  to  great  numbers 
of  our  best  people,  because,  it  was  thought,  always  carrying 
with  them  an  odor  of  cant,  and  suggesting  only  an  offensive 
pretentiousness  and  a  pharisaic  assumption,  which,  talking 
about  God  and  praying  much,  had  occasion  to  sit  at  the  feet 
of  the  worst  open-handed  and  upright  '  sinner,'  to  learn  the 
alphabet  of  a  real  fidelity  to  moral  and  social  obligation. 
It  was  overlooked  that  the  spirit  of  James'  definition  neces- 
sarily implies  a  tender  and  habitual  recognition  of  "  God 


132  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

and  the  Father,"  and  thus  a  life  lived  always  as  '  before  ' 
Him.  Hence  its  mere  letter  became,  to  a  large  extent,  our 
sole  and  constantly  quoted  catechism  upon  the  subject. 
Not  only  was  it  insisted,  as  every  rig-ht-minded  person  must 
insist,  that  religion  means  truth  and  honor  and  charity  ;  it 
was  also  insisted  that  one  who  is  morally  upright,  kind  to 
the  poor  and  thoughtful  of  those  in  trouble,  fulfils  all  duty, 
and  is  in  the  best  sense  religious,  though  what  is  called 
piety  may  fail  to  appear. 

But  while  it  is  easy  to  explain  how  such  a  stjde  of  think- 
ing came  into  vogue  among  us,  the  thinking  itself  is  none 
the  less  to  be  regretted  ;  nor  is  what  has  resulted  from  it, 
or  our  need  of  a  New  Departure  in  respect  to  it,  any  less 
manifest.  As  between  such  an  estimate  of  religion,  indeed, 
and  that  which  holds  it  a  '  fallacy  '  to  think  "  that  making 
men  Christians  of  course  makes  them  honest  and  benev- 
olent,'' the  former  is  infinitely  to  be  preferred  ;  and  while 
we  have  occasion  deeply  to  mourn  our  lack  religiously,  we 
have  no  less  occasion  to  rejoice  that,  morally,  Universalists, 
as  a  class,  have  made  for  themselves  a  record  confessedly  so 
honorable  as  an  upright  and  benevolent  people.  Better  this 
than  mere  pietism  without  it  —  as  the  recently  exposed  im- 
probity and  turpitude  of  so  many  in  high  places,  who  had 
been  regarded  as  distinguished  samples  of  '  evangelical  re- 
ligion,' has  impressively  taught  us.  Alas  !  such  revela- 
tions, in  high  or  humble  places,  as  they  too  often  occur,  do 
but  show  us  what  legitimately  comes  of  that  chronic  separa- 
tion of  religion  and  character,  which  Dr.  Shepard's  remark 
so  signally  illustrates.  But  both  these  estimates  are  incom- 
plete —  one  quite  as  much  as  the  other  ;  and  as  our  '  evan- 
gelical '  friends  need  to  make  —  as  some  of  them  already 
have  made  —  a  new  departure  in  respect  to  character  as 
a  part  of  religion,  we  need  scarcely  less  a  similar  depart- 
ure in  the  other  direction.  It  is  possible  to  make  no  one 
Christian,  they  need  to  understand,  without  making  him 
to  the  same  extent  honest  and  benevolent,  since  piety,  so 
far  as  it  is  genuine,  necessarily  includ.es  morality  ;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  we  need  to  understand,  no  morality  is  sound- 
est, or  most  real,  which  does  not  grow  from  religion  as  its 
tap-root.  The  true  life  comes  only  of  the  harmonious 
blending  of  the  two. 


EXPERIMENTAL  RELIGION.  133 

Very  earnestly  and  decidedly,  then,  we  should  at  once 
give  ourselves  to  the  New  Departure  thus  indicated  —  not 
in  thinking-  of  any  social  charity  or  fidelity  less,  but  of  piety 
more.  Moral  faithfulness  is  indispensable.  But  nothing  is 
farther  fi'om  the  truth  than  the  idea,  however  or  by  whom- 
soever held,  that  we  are  religious  enough  when  we  are  mor- 
ally faithful.  It  virtually  ignores  God.  It  fails  to  take  a 
whole  half  of  our  nature  into  account.  It  overlooks  not  only 
our  duty  to  God,  but  the  indispensable  office  of  a  devout  re- 
gard for  Him,  as  an  element  in  our  experience  and  as  a  forma- 
tive force  at  the  centre  of  our  lives.  Filial  duty  is  by  no 
means  answered  in  simple  kindness  to  brothers  and  sisters, 
and  a  scrupulous  obedience  to  every  parental  command. 
It  is  answered  only  when  the  whole  life  is  possessed  and 
moulded  by  a  filial  love.  As  little  is  our  duty  all  done,  or 
our  whole  nature  ministered  to,  in  any  mere  moral  fidelity, 
however  exact,  or  any  philanthropic  service,  however  thought- 
ful. It  is  answered  only  as  the  whole  being  is  pervaded 
with  a  sense  of  God,  and  all  life  is  made  a  loving  ofiering 
to  Him. 

Religion,  having  this  meaning  of  piety,  it  needs  far  more 
generally  to  be  seen,  is  the  necessity  of  every  soul  :  —  a 
necessity  because  our  relations  and  obligations  to  God  de- 
mand it,  and  not  less  because  our  own  nature  requires  it. 
God  is  the  Life  of  all  life,  and  the  law  of  all  movement  and 
being.  All  nature  confesses  Him,  and  therefore  there  is 
order  among  the  circling  worlds,  and  in  the  domain  of 
matter  everywhere.  Imagine  God  out  of  the  universe,  or 
His  will  no  longer  recognized,  and  what  would  follow  ? 
So>  equally,  God  must  be  the  central  fact  in  the  life  of 
souls,  or  moral  necessities  will  as  certainly  be  broken,  and 
moral  confusion  and  death  ensue.  Hence  our  constitution, 
with  religious  instincts  and  what  we  call  ^our  religious  na- 
ture —  that  we  might  be  held  to  God  as  planets  are  held  to 
their  central  suns,  or  the  needle  to  the  pole.  Neither  needle 
nor  planet  can  wholly  divest  itself  of  this  innate  allegiance, 
but,  however  temporarily  afiected  by  counter  attractions, 
always,  in  the  end,  confesses  its  original  law.  So  with  us 
in  respect  to  God.  Made  to  be  religious,  we  can  never 
wholly  rid  ourselves  of  this  tendency,  and  are  sure  at  some 


134  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

time  to  come  back  to  the  recognition  of  God,  however  we 
may  have  lapsed  from  it.  Kelig'iou  is  the  recognition  of  God  ; 
the  centripetal  force  of  the  spiritual  universe,  binding  souls 
to  Him  ;  the  electric  chain,  linking  us  as  offspring  and  Him 
as  Source,  through  which  alone  can  the  vital  current  be 
communicated  to  us.  Sever  the  flower's  connection  with 
its  root,  it  withers.  Cut  off  the  stream  from  the  fountain, 
it  dries  up.  Detach  the  wire  from  the  battery,  it  is  power- 
less. As  inevitably,  sever  the  soul's  conscious  connection 
with  its  God,  —  let  religion  be  wanting  as  the  medium 
through  wTiich  we  shall  be  nurtured  in  Divine  hopes,  and 
be  kept  sensible  of  our  dependence,  and  loving  as  well  as 
loyal  in  our  service,  —  and,  in  proportion  as  this  is  the  case, 
though  intellect  and  conscience  survive,  and  the  formal  pro- 
cesses of  life  go  on,  the  vigor  and  freshness  of  our  being 
decay ;  the  healthfulness  and  harmonious  action  of  our 
higher  faculties  fail ;  spiritually,  we  die.  There  is  no  life 
away  from  God^  and  religion  alone  keeps  us  in  contact  with 
Him. 

Why  but  on  this  account  does  Christianity  come  to  us  as 
it  does  ?  A  philosophy  of  spiritual  facts  and  laws,  it  is  at 
the  same  time  a  perfect  system  of  doctrine,  and  a  perfect 
ethical  code.  But  does  it  content  itself  with  what  it  thus 
is  ?  Far  otherwise.  Recognizing  in  us  needs  and  capaci- 
ties which  crave  something  deeper  than  any  intellectual 
solution  of  the  universe,  and  something  more  interior  and 
vital  than  any  mould  for  our  outward  life,  it  comes  to  us  a 
Religion,  seeking  not  only  to  inform  the  understanding  and 
instruct  the  conscience,  but  to  take  possession  of  every 
faculty,  pervading  it  with  the  required  sense  of  God,  and 
so  putting  our  whole  being  into  time  and  tune  with  Him. 
Only  as  thus  a  religion,  and  on  the  basis  of  our  religious 
nature,  does  it,  finally,  seek  or  expect  to  do  anything  for  us. 
Of  what  avail  would  its  effort  be,  if  it  did  ?  A  genuine 
manhood  or  womanhood  in  Christ,  rounding  all  our  noblest 
possibilities  into  full  expression,  is  the  result  it  contemplates 
in  respect  to  each  one  of  us  ;  and  how  could  this  be  accom- 
plished if  the  primary  element  of  our  spiritual  nature,  and 
what  is  most  vital  in  our  relations,  had  been  left  out  in  the 
process  ? 


EXPERIMENTAL  RELIGION.  135 

Our  religious  nature  is  the  granitic  base  and  material  of 
character,  and  on  it  and  out  of  it  only  can  the  highest  order 
of  manliness  or  womanliness  be  produced.  Consider  Christ. 
Had  be  incarnated  simple  intellect  and  bare  loyalty  to  moral 
law,  could  his  have  been  the  perfect  life  which  n(nv  so  wins 
while  it  awes  us  ?  Great  intellects  and  correct  lives  have 
many  times  shone  upon  the  world.  The  distinction  of 
Christ  is  that  his  intellect  was  so  invigored  and  vitalized  by 
something  higher,  and  deeper,  and  grander  than  intellect, 
and  his  character  so  pervaded  by  the  very  essence  of  good- 
ness, and  his  entire  life  so  attuned  into  accord  with  Divine 
harmonies,  that  he  became  in  all  things  so  complete  as  the 
Ideal  Man  as  to  be  also  the  Image  of  God.  And  why? 
Not  only  because  his  perceptions  of  God  were  so  clear,  but 
because  his  consciousness  of  Him  was  so  complete  ;  because 
his  trust  in  Him,  and  his  communion  with  Him,  and  his 
union  to  Him,  were  so  entire  ;  because  his  whole  soul  was 
so  alive  with  Him,  in  the  quickening  of  every  religious  fac- 
tor of  his  nature,  and  the  perfect  fruitage  of  every  religious 
possibility.  He  might  have  known  all  he  did,  and  might 
have  been  as  externally  blameless  as  he  was  ;  but,  lacking 
this  consummate  religiousness  which  was,  at  the  same  time, 
despite  the  apparent  confusion  of  figures,  the  substratum, 
the  essence  and  the  aroma  of  his  life,  he  could  never  have 
been  what  he  was,  nor  have  shed  such  a  power  into  the 
world.  And  he  but  exemplifies  the  universal  fact.  Not 
only  is  religion  no  new  invention,  the  religious  needs  and 
tendencies  of  men  being  coeval  with  human  existence,  but, 
in  every  period  of  the  world,  the  most  truly  religious  man, 
other  things  being  equal,  has  been  the  largest,  most  philan- 
thropic, noblest  man  ;  and  all  men  have  been  good,  happy, 
truly  great,  in  exact  proportion  as  they  have  approached 
the  best  standard  of  religious  excellence. 

And  the  past  in  this  particular  only  prophesies  the  future. 
There  are  those  who  are  fond  of  talking  of  religion  as  a 
superstition,  a  sort  of  childishness  and  temporary  weakness 
of  mankind,  which  is,  in  due  time,  to  be  outgrown,  as  chil- 
dren outgrow  their  toys  and  primers.  No  doubt  the  world 
has  much  to  outgrow  —  how  much,  or  what,  no  one  can 
say ;    and,  as  the  consequence,  many  things  now  dear  — 


136  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE, 

usages,  opinions,  institutions  —  are  doubtless  to  be  cast 
aside.  But,  as  was  in  substance  said  in  speaking  of  Christ, 
whatever  else  may  be  cast  aside,  religion  never  will  be. 
There  can  be  no  progress  beyond  the  scope  of  its  truths,  — 
no  condition  of  development  in  which  it  will  have  no  further 
office.  Opinions  will  change.  Forms  will  pei'ish.  Inter- 
pretations will  pass  away.  But  man  will  never  outgrow 
God.  Religion  there  will  always  be — the  necessity  of 
souls ;  the  support  and  handmaid  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  elements  of  our  being,  whatever  the  progress  possible 
to  them.  And  in  heaven,  as  on  earth,  human  nature  and  its 
relations  to  God  continuing  the  same,  the  most  religious 
soul,  living  most  in  God,  will  stand  in  the  van  of  the  race, 
breathing  most  of  that  clearer  atmosphere ;  having  the 
broadest  outlook,  as  well  as  the  deepest  insight ;  and  exhib- 
iting the  noblest  specimen  of  ripened  and  sanctified  human 
life. 

And,  all  this  being  true,  what  is  the  conclusion  in  respect 
to  experimental  religion  to  which  it  conducts  us  ?  Clearly, 
if  we  are  to  be  religious  at  all,  not  religion  as  a  theology, 
nor  as  a  moral  service,  but  as  an  experience, — experimental 
religion,  is  that  which  alone  meets  the  demands  and  condi- 
tions in  the  case.  What  is  experimental  religion  ?  No  wise 
man  should  suffer  himself  to  be  prejudiced  against  the  thing 
because  the  terms  by  which  it  is  signified  may  have  been 
abused.  This  abuse  of  the  terms,  indeed,  admonishes  us 
that  we  should  distinctly  understand  what  experimental  re- 
ligion is  not.  It  is  not  mere  church-going,  or  talk  about 
God  and  religion,  we  should  bear  in  mind.  It  is  not  a  pietis- 
tic  dilettanteism,  that  affects  religious  pictures  and  forms  ; 
and,  quite  as  decidedly,  it  is  not  a  mere  effervescence  of  re- 
ligious sentiment  or  emotion,  that  loves  devotional  meet- 
ings, and  runs  over  in  pious  phrases  and  professions,  and  is 
never  so  happy  as  in  some  convocation  for  prayer  and  reli- 
gious exhortation.  One  at  all  experimentally  religious,  it  is 
true,  will  naturally  love  religious  associations  and  exercises. 
But  none  of  these  things  in  themselves  constitute  exj)eri- 
mental  religion  ;  nor  is  a  fondness  for  them  by  any  means  a 
sure  sign  of  its  presence.  On  the  contrary,  some  of  those 
whom  I  have  known  most  addicted  to  them  have  been,  of 


EXPERIMENTAL  RELIGION.  137 

all  the  people  I  have  met,  among  those  farthest  from  pos- 
sessing any  such  religion,  and  from  any  just  conception  of 
it  —  because  showing,  in  their  meanness,  selfishness,  or  dis- 
honesty, in  their  fractious  or  unamiable  spirit,  that  religion 
was  in  no  positive  sense  a  fact  in  their  lives. 

Experimental  religion  is  religion  experienced  and  appropri- 
ated as  a  possessing  and  governing  power.  Experimental 
honesty,  democracy,  benevolence,  is  honesty,  democracy, 
benevolence  not  simply  talked  and  believed  in,  but  under- 
stood, felt,  put  into  action.  In  like  manner,  experimental  re- 
ligion is  real  religion  —  religion  felt,  applied,, permeating  the 
soul,  to  thrill,  quicken  and  control  it.  It  is  the  working  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit  of  Truth  within  us,  vitalizing  and  fructify- 
ing us  —  as,  if  the  earth  were  conscious,  spring,  summer,  au- 
tumn, would  in  turn  be  its  experimental  attestation  that  it 
had  felt  itself  warmed,  watered,  and  supplied  with  all  the 
quickening  and  fertilizing  agencies  appointed  to  stir  and 
make  it  fruitful.  It  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul :  —  what 
our  Lord  enjoined  when  he  said,  "  If  any  man  will  do  His 
will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God, 
or  whether  I  speak  of  myself.  .  .  .  He  that  hath  my  com- 
mandments and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  me  ;  and 
he  that  loveth  me  shall  be  loved  of  my  Father,  and  I  will 
love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  to  him,  .  .  .  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make 
our  abode  with  him.  .  .  .  Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you.  .  .  . 
He  that  abideth  in  me  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth  forth 
much  fruit"  (John  vii.  17;  xiv.  21,  23;  xv.  4,  5);  — 
what  Paul  had  in  his  thought  when  he  said,  "because  the 
love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  is  given  unto  us  ...  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  .  .  .  that  he  would  grant 
you  according  to  the  riches  of  His  glory,  to  be  strengthened 
with  might  by  His  spirit  in  the  inner  man  ;  that  Christ  may 
dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith  ;  that  ye,  being  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend  with  all 
saints  what  is  the  breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and 
height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ,  which  passeth 
knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of 
God"   (Eom.   V.  5;    Eph.    iii.    14,    16-19);— what    Peter" 


138  OUR  NEW  DEPAETUEE. 

meant  when  he  said,  "  whom,  having  not  seen,  ye  love  ;  in 
whom,  though  now  ye  see  him  not,  yet,  believing,  ye  rejoice 
witli  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory,  receiving  the  end  of 
your  faith,  the  salvation  of  your  souls"  (1  Pot.  i.  8,  9)  ;  — - 
and  what  John  was  thinking  of  when  he  said,  "  This  is  the 
love  of  God,  that  we  keep  His  commandments,  .  ,  .  For 
whatsoever  is  born  of  God  overcometh  the  world  ;  and  this 
is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith  " 
(1  John  V.  3,  4). 

It  is  one  of  the  chief  misfortunes  of  the  world,  and  es- 
pecially of  the  church,  that  so  much  of  its  religion  is  non- 
experimental  —  alas  I  much  of  it  that  broadens  its  phylac- 
teries, and  prays  loudly,  and  thinks  i_tself  experimental. 
Reading  Morell'S  "Philosophy  of  Religion,"  years  ago,  I 
was  struck  with  a  statement  to  this  effect :  "  We  pity  the 
deluded  people  who  substitute  the  superstitious  reverence 
of  saints,  relics  and  images  for  the  veneration  and  heartfelt 
worship  of  God.  How  few  reflect  that,  within  our  own 
communities,  there  are  multitudes,  claiming  to  be  much 
more  intelligent,  Avho  are  practising  a  substitution  equally 
fatal  to  all  that  is  most  elevated  in  the  Christian  life — the 
substitution  of  terms,  phrases,  propositions,  beliefs,  for  the 
vital  power  of  the  religion  of  Christ."  It  is  sad  to  think 
how  large  the  number  is  who  make  this  substitution,  and 
how  all  the  interests  that  would  be  furthered  by  a  more  liv- 
ing and  experimental  Christianity  are  suffering  in  conse- 
quence. 

Two  things  are  to  be  particularly  noted  as  thus  re- 
sulting. 

la  the  first  place,  to  the  extent  that  it  is  made,  this  sub- 
stitution gives  a  thin,  poor,  halting  faith,  instead  of  the 
assurance  to  which  the  Christian  believer  is  called.  This 
assurance  is  one  that  knows  nothing  of  doubt  —  that  takes 
hold  of  Christianity  as  a  fact,  and  of  God,  and  Christ,  and 
redemption,  and  immortality,  as  realities,  with  a  confidence 
as  implicit  as  that  with  which  we  take  hold  of  any  fact  in 
the  unquestionable  order  of  nature.  But  such  a  faith  never 
comes  of  mere  argument.  i 

It  is  well  —  on  some  accounts,  very  important  —  that  we 
should  thoroughly  understand  the  various  proofs  of  Chris- 


EXPERIMENTAL  RELIGION.  139 

tianity,  historical  and  moral,  external  and  internal,  that  wo 
may  thus  see  how  it  is  established  and  fortified  at  every  pos- 
sible point,  and  so  be  prepared  to  answer  the  objections  of 
unbelief,  and  the  questions  of  honest  inquiry.  But  these, 
after  all,  avail  little  towards  the  moral  certitude  which 
makes  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  as  absolute 
as  the  conviction  of  one's  own  existence.  Most  people 
take  Christianity  on  trust.  Their  faith  in  it  is  the  result 
simply  of  education  or  tradition,  and,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  if  this  is  all,  cannot,  when  sharply  assailed,  be  very 
strong.  And  the  faith  that  is  better  founded  and  more  in- 
telligent, but  that  is  only  historical,  critical,  intellectual, 
however  sure,  is  never  so  quite  sure  as  to  be  certain  beyond 
all  peradventure.  The  result  of  what  is  called  a  compari- 
son of  evidence,  —  that  is,  of  a  balance  of  probabilities, 
with  the  balance  more  or  less  decidedly  in  favor  of  Chris- 
tianity, it  is  always  liable  to  gusts  of  questioning  and 
flaws  of  doubt,  as  one  sailing  on  some  lakes  is  constantly 
exposed  to  squalls,  and,  if  a  wise  man,  always  sails  with 
one  hand  on  his  rudder,  and  the  other  on  his  *  sheet,'  feel- 
ing perhaps  not  insecure,  but,  all  the  time,  that  some  unex- 
pected gust  may  strike  him,  and,  if  he  is  not  duly  on  his 
guard,  upset  his  boat,  and  tumble  him  into  the  water.  For 
the  faith  which,  whether  one  accepts  Christianity  by  educa- 
tion, or  only  after  careful  inquiry  into  its  proofs,  is  most 
confident,  putting  one  entirely  at  rest,  as  one  sails  some 
placid  sea,  where  no  flaws  or  gusts  ever  come,  and  where, 
before  the  steady  blowing  of  some  favoring  breeze,  he  ad- 
justs his  rudder  and  fastens  his  sail,  and,  in  a  sense  of 
entire  security,  has  no  thought  except  of  the  calm  delight 
of  the  hour,  and  of  the  place  where,  by  and  by,  he  is  to 
land,  one  must  have  the  demonstration  of  experience. 

Because  of  what  is  thus  true,  there  is  perpetual  signifi- 
cance in  the  familiar  story  of  the  unlettered  man  who,  being 
asked  by  a  self-confident  sceptic  where  he  found  his  evi- 
dence of  Christianity,  laid  his  hand  on  his  heart,  saying. 
Here.  Only  of  this  evidence  does  the  highest  assurance 
come.  As  the  consequence,  the  more  entirely  Christian 
one  is,  —  i.e.  the  more  one  has  '  Christ  in  him,  the  hope  of 
glory,'  the  instructor  of  his  ignorance,  his  comfort  in  sor- 


140  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

row,  bis  help  in  every  need,  the  less,  so  far  as  he  is  per- 
sonally concei'ned,  will  be  his  interest  in  the  ordinary  ele- 
ments of  proof,  and  the  more  inconsiderable  will  seem  to 
him  their  value.  Desiring  to  know  whether  there  really  are 
such  places  as  Niagara  and  the  Yosemite,  I  do  well  to  col- 
late evidence  and  study  descriptions  ;  but  what  need  have 
I  of  these  things  if  I  am  there?  How  was  it  with  the 
healed  blind  man  of  whom  John  (is.  10-38)  tells  us  ? 
Pestered  by  his  cross-examiners  with  questions  which  he 
could  not  readily  answer,  this  was  his  sufficient  rejoinder, 
"  Whether  he  be  a  sinner  or  no,  I  know  not:  one  thing  I 
know,  that,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  What  if  there 
were  questions  which  he  could  not  answer  ?  This  was  the 
impregnable  demonstration  that  Christ  was  verily  from  God. 

It  is  as  we  "  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good,"  that 
we  know  Him  to  be  so,  and  iind  it  blessed  to  trust  in  Him  ; 
and  whatever  may  be  our  acquaintance  with  other  argu- 
ments or  evidence,  it  is  only  as  we  have  experience  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  find  ourselves  illumined,  vitalized,  saved  by  it, 
that  we  attain  to  the  certitude  which  says,  I  know  it  is  of 
God.  As  Dr.  Chapin  has  somewhere  remarked,  "  The  more 
we  get  into  the.  very  spirit  of  Christ,  and  participate  in  his 
life  and  joy,  the  more  we  see  that  he  was  and  must  have  been, 
from  God  ;  and  the  more  we  test  the  capacity  of  his  religion 
for  our  wants  and  trials,  and  find  it  what  we  need,  the  deeper 
will  be  our  assurance  that  it  is  from  Him  who  made  us  what 
we  are."  We  thus  have  the  witness  within  ourselves  ;  and 
any  other  is  and  can  be  only  akin  to  that  Avhich  a  blind  man 
has  of  the  beaut}''  of  a  landscape,  or  of  the  splendors  of  the 
setting  sun,  or  such  as  one  may  have  concerning  the  gran- 
deur of  the  mountains,  or  the  ruins  of  Thebes,  who  has  only 
read  about,  and  has  never  had  his  soul  thrilled  among 
them. 

But  the  great  consideration  pertaining  to  this  subject  is 
that  only  an  Experimental  Religion  at  all  positively  answers 
any  religious  purpose,  or  can  effectually  do  the  work  of  sav- 
ing souls.  Any  faith  in  Christianity  is,  in  a  sense,  some- 
thing gained  —  as,  if  people  were  suffering  on  account  of 
a  morbid  abstinence,  something  would  be  gained  in  getting 
them  to  believe  in  food,  and  water,  and  fresh  air.     But  what 


EXPERIMENTAL  RELIGION.  141 

would  mere  belief  avail  towards  sustaining  life  ?  As  little  . 
does  any  mere  belief  in  Christianity  avail  for  the  ends  it 
contemplates.  It  prepares  the  way  for  something  better 
than  belief.  But,  in  itself,  such  a  mere  opinion  is  worth 
little  more  than  any  other  opinion.  Heart  as  well  as  head 
must  be  aficcted,  if  Christianity  is  positively  to  accomplish 
anything.  "  It's  a  wonder  to  me,"  once  said  a  perplexed 
and  inquiring  friend,  as  we  were  talking  of  Christ,  "if 
Christianity  is  really  from  God,  that  it  does  not  take  deeper 
hold  of  men,  and  more  generally  control  them.  Why  doesn't 
it  ?  "  The  same  question  has  doubtless  occurred  to  many 
others,  and  to  answer  it  thoroughly,  numerous  causes  would 
have  to  be  taken  into  account.  But  hei'e  we  have  the  main 
and  most  inclusive  answer  :  —  Because  such  vast  multitudes 
are  content  to  believe  with  the  head,  and  not  with  the  heart. 
Because  so  great  a  proportion  of  those  nominally  ranged 
under  the  Christian  banner  are  Christians  only  in  a  nominal 
assent, — in  a  merely  historical  or  traditional  faith, — iu 
talk  about  Christianity,  instead  of  being  Christians  in  a 
faith  that  pervades  and  possesses  the  whole  being,  transform- 
ing Christianity  from  theory  into  fact,  and  so  bringing  souls 
into  "a  living  union  with  the  Saviour,  and  filling  them  with 
the  fulness  of  God.  Appropriation,  application,  insight,  ex- 
perience are  wanting.  In  other  words.  Religion  is  only  on 
the  surface  of  the  mind,  as  an  opinion.  It  fails  to  go  into 
its  depths,  among  the  springs  of  life,  as  a  principle  and  a 
power.  Shall  we  wonder  that,  under  these  circumstances, 
Christianity  does  not  more  widely  conform  life  to  itself? 
The  wonder  is  that  it  has  accomplished  and  is  accomplishing 
so  much.  It  is  as  if  the  rain,  and  sunshine,  and  all  fer- 
tilizing agencies  could  barely  touch  the  face  of  the  soil,  — 
never  infiltrate  and  pervade  its  substance.  How  much,  were 
this  so,  would  they  do  to  cover  garden  and  field  with  the 
verdure  of  the  spring-time,  or  to  crown  the  autumn  with 
harvests  ? 

The  chapter  on  Christ  Essential  glanced  at  the  condition 
of  things  before  Christ's  advent.  And  why  were  things  so  ? 
Not  because  the  Avorld  had  no  ti-uth.  It  had  a  great  deal 
of  truth  ;  in  some  form  had  not  a  little  of  that  which  Chris- 
tianity more  perfectly  embodied,  —  enough,  certainly,  if  it 


142  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

had  been  effective,  to  have  made  life  very  different  from 
what  it  was.  But  it  was  ineffective.  Why  ?  Because  its 
moral  force  failed  to  be  seen  and  felt ;  because  men  specu- 
lated and  believed  concerning  God  and  Duty,  just  as  they 
did  about  problems  in  geometry,  or  rules  in  mathematics, 
touched  no  more  spiritually  by  a  Divine  thought  than  by  the 
multiplication-table ;  because,  therefoi-e,  consciences  were 
not  quickened,  nor  hearts  pricked  or  melted  ;  in  a  single 
word,  because  there  was  nothing  exjyerimenial  in  the  faith  or 
religion  of  the  time.  The  result  was  that,  notwithstanding 
all  the  truth  the  world  had,  it  was  '  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,'  —  ready  to  perish.  Thanks  to  Christianity,  the  moral 
standards  of  society  have  greatly  changed  since  then.  Higher 
ideas  rule  the  world.  The  general  conscience  has  been  edu- 
cated up  to  far  juster  estimates  of  obligation.  It  takes  vastly 
more  now  to  make  a  respectably  good  man  or  woman  than  it 
did  then.  But  so  far  as  the  essence  and^urpose  of  life,  con- 
sciously chosen  and  determined,  are  concerned,  in  what  respect 
does  the  life  of  the  average  nominal  Christian  to-day  differ 
from  the  life  thus  prevalent  before  Christ  ?  How  much  more 
has  he  of  an  habitual  sense  of  God,  —  of  spiritual  awakening 
and  experience,  —  of  penitence  for  sin,  —  of  a  heart  given 
to  God  and  poised  on  Him  ?  Or,  were  Christ  and  Paul  now 
with  us  in  the  flesh,  how  large  is  the  number  of  whom  the 
former  would  not  say,  as  he  said  to  the  Jews,  "  I  know  you 
that  ye  have  not  the  love  of  God  in  you,"  or  of  whom  the 
latter  would  not  repeat  his  words,  —  "knowing  God,  they 
glorified  Him  not  as  God  "  ? 

There  is  weighty  significance  in  the  fact  thus  suggested  ; 
and  in  the  light  of  this  fact,  is  it  difficult  to  see  why  Christi- 
anity does  not  take  deeper  hold  of  men,  and  more  perfectly 
control  them  ?  For  what  we  are  unconsciously  and  without 
self-purpose,  amidst  the  educative  and  elevating  influences  of 
the  Gospel,  we  are  entitled  to  no  credit ;  and  putting  this  out 
of  the  case,  we  really  rise  above  the  heathen,  and  begin  to 
live  on  the  Christian  plane,  only  when  we  begin  to  have  our 
hearts  moved  in  view  of  the  moral  meaning  of  Christianity, 
and  thus  to  be  quickened  into  the  purpose  to  make  it  an  ex- 
perimental thing  —  an  inspiration,  a  law,  a  power,  a  life. 
We  may  talk,  and  talk  well,  about  Christianity,  and  think  we 


EXPERIMENTAL  RELIGION.  143 

believe  it.  We  may  attend  where  it  is  preached,  and 
exhibit  an  unimpeachable  morality,  and  be  in  good  report, 
as  kind-hearted  people,  among-  those  who  know  us.  But  all 
this  does  not  make  us  Christians  to  any  best  effect.  It  is 
only  when  down  into  our  souls  flows  a  mastering  conscious- 
ness of  God,  and  of  what,  as  the  supreme  realities  of  the 
universe,  God  and  Christ  and  Immortality  demand,  —  it  is 
only  as,  in  presence  of  the  Cross,  we  are  touched,  humbled, 
and  drawn  to  God,  with  hearts  awakened  and  glowing  in  the 
purpose  to  have  no  other  life  or  law,  that  we  are  Christians 
in  truth,  knowing  something  of  what  the  religion  of  Christ 
is,  and  illustrating  its  efEcacy  as  we  experience  its  quicken- 
ing and  its  joy. 

And  consider,  for  a  moment,  what  the  life  of  one  who  has 
thus  experienced  religion  is.  I  know  there  are  pi*etenders. 
I  kuow  there  are  those  "  having  the  form  of  godliness,  but 
denying  the  power  thereof,"  and  that  through  the  pretences 
and  hollow  talk  of  such,  Christ  is  dishonored,  and  the  very 
name  of  experimental  religion  made  a  thing  to  be  jeered 
at.  But  God  does  not  die,  nor  Christ  become  a  fable,  nor 
religion  cease  to  be  a  reality,  on  account  of  these  things. 
There  are  souls  —  many  of  them,  who  are  not  pretenders, 
and  who,  in  saintly  lives,  daily  walk  in  the  companionship 
of  Christ,  '  dwelling  in  God,  and  God  in  them.'  And  think 
what  the  life  of  such  a  one  is.  What  seem  dreams  or 
abstractions  to  others,  are  the  sublimest  verities  to  him. 
While  to  others  God  is  an  impersonal  and  shadowy  concep- 
tion, the  logical  ultimate  in  the  solution  of  the  universe,  or 
an  inexorable  law,  to  him  He  is  an  encompassing  Presence 
of  Mercy,  —  a  Friend  who  never  forgets,  —  a  Father,  num- 
bering the  hairs  of  our  heads,  —  a  Shield  and  Help  always. 
While  others  recognize  only  external  and  artificial  relations 
between  them  and  the  men  and  women  about  them,  he  sees 
in  all  who  wear  the  human  form,  whatever  their  complexion 
or  condition,  those  to  whom  he  is  linked  by  vital  and  endur- 
ing ties  —  brothers  and  sisters,  to  whom  he  owes  a  brother's 
love  and  service.  What  to  others  are  but  so  many  mean- 
ingless facts  are  to  him  the  symbols  of  a  tender  and  com- 
prehensive love,  or  assurances  of  a  power  to  which  all 
things  are  possible,  or  of  a  beneficence  that  never  sleeps. 


144  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

Go  where  he  may,  he  sees  everything  instinct  with  God ; 
and  every  place  and  all  time  and  all  experience  are  hallowed 
by  the  thought  of  His  care.  The  universe  to  him  is  a 
temple,  life  a  worship,  and  every  object  or  circumstance 
somehow  a  minister  to  faith,  reverence,  or  joy.  The  sun- 
light greets  him  as  the  messenger  of  an  impartial  favor,  and 
each  star  as  it  shines  in  the  sky  of  night  tells  of  a  goodness 
that  through  the  darkness  watches  still.  Every  flower,  as 
it  -sheds  its  fragrance  or  nods  in  the  wind,  is  a  type  of  some 
beautiful  thought  of  God,  and  all  the  music  of  nature  does 
but  help  to  keep  his  heart  in  tune.  Every  joy  is  sweeter 
as  the  gift  of  a  Father's  thoughtfulness,  and  every  sorrow  is 
accepted  as  the  appointment  or  permission  of  One  who  is 
aiming  thus  to  discipline  him  into  a  more  perfect  communion 
with  himself.  When  clouds  gather,  he  pierces  through 
them,  beholding  the  light  beyond.  When  dear  ones  die, 
he  calmly  bows  to  their  loss  in  the  assurance  that  they  have 
but  preceded  him  in  the  journey  home.  In  his  moral  con- 
flicts, assailed  by  temptation,  or  conscious  of  faults  or  sin, 
he  looks  to  Christ  and  gathers  courage,  — looks  to  the  cross 
and  gathers  strength.  Amidst  the  varied  annoyances  inci- 
dent to  all  earthly  conditions,  centred  on  God,  he  maintains 
his  equanimity  and  self-possession,  and  growing  sweeter, 
more  thoughtful  of  others,  more  forgetful  of  self,  becomes, 
like  ripening  fruit,  flavored  and  mellowed  by  the  passing 
time.  And  when,  at  last,  death  approaches,  he  closes  his 
eyes  on  this  world,  peaceful  as  he  trustingly  lays  his  head 
on  the  bosom  of  God,  and  breathes  out  his  life  here,  confi- 
dent that  he  is  to  live  forever.  By  the  side  of  such  a  life, 
what  is  the  life  of  the  worldling,  or  the  philosopher,  or  the 
most  genial  and  unexceptionable  moralist  even  ?  Only  in 
such  a  life  does  one  truly  live  ;  and  however  fair  or  pleasant  in 
its  seeming,  any  other  is,  at  the  best,  empty  and  incomplete. 
In  this  life  only  does  our  whole  nature  find  expression  and 
satisfaction  ;  and  whoever  fails  to  live  it,  and  in  exact  pro- 
portion as  he  fails,  comes  short  alike  of  the  Divine  resources, 
of  the  rounded  character,  and  of  the  strength  and  peace  in 
which  alone  our  destiny  is  fulfilled. 

Is  not  such  a  life  one  to  be  desired  ?  But  experimental 
religion  —  religion  as  a  vital  principle  and  power  in  the 
Boul — alone  makes  it  possible.     For  this  reason,  many  very 


EXPERIMENTAL   RELIGION.  145 

excellent  people  fail  of  it.  Excellent  in  many  respects,  thoy 
come  short  of  the  roundest  and  completest  life,  because 
they  have  never  experienced  religion  ;  have  never  had  their 
hearts  kindled  ;  have  never  felt  the  glow  of  God's  life  in 
theirs.  "Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  be- 
lieved ?  "  asked  Paul  of  the  disciples  at  Ephesus  ;  to  which 
they  replied,  "  We  have  not  so  much  as  heard  whether  there 
be  any  Holy  Ghost."  And  this  is  what  the  class  of  persons 
referred  to  would  have  to  say,  if  asked  the  same  question. 
They  do  not  know  that  there  is  any  Holy  Ghost.  But 
Christ's  baptism  is  a  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  fire 
—  a  baptism  of  awakening  and  consecrating  power  ;  and 
only  as  we  receive  this  baptism,  and,  in  penitence,  love, 
and  self-surrender,  are  impelled  to  take  Christ's  hand,  in 
trust  and  prayer,  —  to  walk  as  he  leads,  to  feel  as  he  felt, 
to  try  to  live  as  he  shows  us  how,  —  are  we,  or  can  we  be, 
lifted  into  the  noblest  living,  because  only  thus  can  we  have 
Christianity  in  us  the  ministry  it  aims  to  be,  or  have  it  go 
out  from  us  the  saving  influence  God  has  designed.  Chris- 
tianity masters  and  ripens  only  those  whom  it  experiment- 
ally enters,  melts  and  possesses. 

These  things  being  so,  the  issue  tendered  all  who  profess 
to  believe  in  Christ  is  obvious.  It  is  —  an  experimental  re- 
ligious life,  or  a  life  empty  alike  of  the  moral  flavor  and 
spiritual  power  of  the  Gospel,  failing  of  real  completeness, 
whatever  its  excellences,  and  resembling  in  essence  the 
lives  of  those  who  knew  not  Christ,  and  who  were  perishing 
in  consequence.  This  is  no  mere  talk.  It  is  solemn  fact, 
if  God  and  Christ  and  souls  are  facts.  And,  full  of  interest 
to  all,  this  alternative  should  be  of  special  interest  to  us. 
Universallsm  is  nothing  if  it  is  not  the  awakening  and  life- 
giving  religion  of  Christ.  It  is  this,  we  are  pertinaciously 
affirming.  Were  it  possible  for  us  to  be  convinced  that  it 
is  not.  who  is  there  of  us  that  would  not  at  once  abandon 
it?  And  if  it  is  what  we  thus  insist,  "what  manner  of 
persons  ought  we  to  be  in  all  holy  conversation  and  godli- 
ness !  "  How  our  hearts  ought  to  thrill  and  burn  with  the 
Divine  afflatus,  and  our  lives  give  evidence  of  its  indwelling 
presence  and  inspiration  !  Nowhere  on  the  broad  earth  is 
there  a  man  or  woman  who  ought  to  be  so  devout,  with  a 
10 


146  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

heart  so  glowing,  with  a  life  so  built  on  religion  as  a  princi- 
ple, and  so  pervaded  by  it  as  a  power,  as  the  Univ^ersalist ; 
none  is  so  utterly  without  excuse  for  not  being  so.  For 
think  what  we  have  to  impress  and  move  us,  in  the  Divine 
Father  and  His  pitying  and  pleading  love  ;  in  a  Saviour 
so  devoted  and  compassionate,  so  tenderly  and  unconquer- 
ably wedded  to  our  redemption  ;  in  the  conversation  with 
heaven  and  the  communion  with  our  departed  to  which  we 
are  invited  ;  and  in  all  the  sanctions  and  appeals  by  which 
we  are  addressed.  Whatever  the  strength  of  his  conviction 
intellectually,  or  however  ready  or  zealous  in  church  work, 
one  cannot  be  most  fully  a  Universalist,  or  be  able  to  do 
most  for  Christ,  and  truth,  and  souls,  under  the  banner  of 
Universalism,  imtil  he  has  thus  experienced  it  as  a  religion, 
seeing  and  feeling  that  it  is  a  religion,  and  giving  daily  evi- 
dence that  it  has  effectually  wrought  within  him. 

It  is  one  of  the  chief  misfortunes  of  Universalism  that  it 
is  so  widely  supposed  to  be  fatally  wanting  in  religious  eiB- 
cacy.  This  impression  it  is  our  duty  immediately  to  cor- 
rect ;  but  it  can  be  corrected  only  as  we  bear  in  mind  the 
Master's  test,  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  One 
life  demonstrating  that  Universalism  has  power  to  infuse 
a  sense  of  God  into  souls,  and  to  make  His  life  theirs,  will 
do  more  than  whole  libraries  of  books,  or  any  amount  of 
argument.  It  is  this  power  that  the  world  now  most  needs; 
and,  because  of  its  alleged  fitness  to  communicate  this,  Uni- 
versalism, we  are  claiming,  is  the  providential  answer  to 
the  need.  Shall  we  fail  to  make  it  such  an  answer  in  fact, 
because  failing  ourselves  to  appropriate  and  experience 
what  it  religiously  is  ?  Alike  for  our  own  sakes,  that  we 
may  personally  know  the  best  blessings  of  our  faith,  —  and 
for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel  in  our  keeping,  that  its  real  char- 
acter may  be  vindicated,  —  and  for  tlie  sake  of  our  Church, 
that  it  may  be  made  vital  with  the  living  Christ,  —  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  world,  that  the  power  which  alone  can  pos- 
sess and  save  may  be  shed  into  it,  —  we  should,  with  one 
consent,  straightway  give  ourselves  to  the  New  Departure 
which  justice  to  Universalism  as  a  Religion  demands.  It  is 
a  shame  to  us  that,  with  so  much  to  make  us  vitally  reli- 
gious beyond  all  others,  we  are  showing  comparatively  so 
little  siirn  of  it.     Let  this  reproach  henceforth  cease. 


CHAPTER  X. 

CONSECKATION.  ,    - 

Consecration  is  defined  to  be  "  the  act  of  setting  apart  a 
person  or  thing  to  the  service  or  worship  of  God ;  dedica- 
tion to  a  sacred  use."  Every  determinate  giving  of  one's 
self  to  a  good  cause,  or  to  a  noble  act  or  course  of  action, 
is  therefore  of  the  nature  of  consecration  ;  and  no  life  takes 
on  its  highest  character,  our  service  of  God  never  becomes 
most  positive  and  complete,  until  it  has  this  element  of 
consecration  at  its  centre. 

Even  Christ,  we  are  told,  was  made  "  perfect  through 
sufferings ;  "  and  what  finally  were  these  sufferings  but  so 
many  tests  of  his  consecration  ?  There  is  an  important 
sense  in  which  he  was  '  sent,'  as  the  messenger  of  God's 
truth,  and  especially  as  the  commendation  of  God's  love. 
He  frequently  so  spoke  of  himself,  and  was  as  frequently 
so  spoken  of  by  his  Apostles.  But  we  do  not  at  all  prop- 
erly understand  him  when  we  only  so  think  of  him.  We 
must  see  him  as  one  who  came,  as  well  as  one  who  was  sent, 
—  as  one  who  gave  himself,  as  well  as  one  who  was  ap- 
pointed of  God,  before  we  can  have  an  insight  into  the 
characteristic  of  his  life,  and  so  begin  to  perceive  what  it  is 
that  renders  his  mission  most  an  object  of  interest,  and  that 
makes  him  most  potent  to  affect  and  attract  souls.  As  we 
saw  in  the  chapter,  "  Bought  with  a  Price,"  "he  gave  him- 
self for  us."  Herein  is  his  distinction, — his  glory.  In 
other  words,  he  consecrated  himself,  as  God's  instrument, 
to  our  welfare  and  salvation,  —  as  he  said  to  the  Jews, 
"  The  good  shepherd  giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep.  .  .  . 
Therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me,  because  I  lay  down  my 
life,  that  I  might  take  it  again.  No  man  taketh  it  from  mo, 
but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself"  (John  x.  11,  17,  18)  ;  and  as 
he  said  in  his  prayer  before  his  betrayal,  "  For  their  sakes, 
I  sanctify  [or  consecrate]  myself"  (John  xvii.  19).     There 

147 


148  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

is  something  vastly  beyond  any  idea  of  being  simply  sejit 
in  all  this.     As  a  good  writer  has  well  said,  — 

"  There  was  a  certain  voluntariness  about  his  mission,  which  we  lose 
sight  of  when  we  regard  him  as  simply  the  follower  of  an  inexorable 
law,  or  as  coming  to  man's  help  only  because  he  was  '  sent.'  I  cannot 
fathom  Divine  council,  and  determine  by  what  election  or  selection 
Jesus  was  commissioned;  but  this  I  feel  —  that  the  commission,  the 
appointment,  did  not  alone  constitute  him  the  Messiah.  He  did  not 
come  as  a  king's  messenger,  as  an  envoy  of  an  empire,  solely  at  com- 
,  mand.  There  was  a  deliberate  acceptance  of  the  office  ;  and  this,  not 
in  the  mere  boy-resolve  of  the  Temple,  or  the  secret  struggle  and  pur- 
pose of  the  desert,  nor  by  baptism  in  the  Jordan,  but  by  going  out  into 
life,  and  carrying  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  into  everything,  else  '  he 
had  not  been  a  man  after  God's  idea  of  manhood  ;  for  the  idea  of  man 
which  God  had  been  for  ages  laboring  to  give,  through  a  consecrated 
tribe  and  a  consecrated  nation,  was  the  idea  of  a  being  whose  life-law 
is  sacrifice,  every  act  and  every  thought  being  devoted  to  God.'  His 
whole  life  was  proof  of  his  declaration,  '  I  sanctify  [rather,  consecrate] 
myself.'  To  have  been  merely  sent  made  him  a  servant,  at  best  a  later 
Moses ;  but  to  accept  the  mission  made  him  a  son  —  Jesus,  the 
Christ." 

And  what  was  thus  true  of  Christ  is,  in  our  several 
places,  true  of  every  one  of  us  all.  Life  becomes  saintliest 
and  noblest  only  as,  under  the  inspiration  of  a  noble  and 
unselfish  purpose,  we  deliberately  give  ourselves,  in  a  sac- 
rifice of  all  that  an  opposite  course  has  to  offer  us,  conse- 
crate to  whatever  God,  in  Christ,  demands.  In  a  sense, 
again  appi'opriating  the  words  of  the  writer  above  cited,  — 

"Everyman  is  'sent'  into  the  world;  but  not  till  he  consciously, 
deliberately,  accepts  his  mission,  can  he  become  lifted  up  into  the  great 
heirship  with  Christ ;  not  till  then  is  he  a  '  son.'  The  act  of  sending, 
on  the  part  of  God,  must  be  supplemented  by  the  act  of  acceptance  on 
the  part  of  man.  And  the  acceptance  must  be  without  reserve.  Not 
only  must  he  take  God's  gift  of  life,  but  he  must  give  life  to  duty  ; 
not  merely  must  he  surrender  himself  to  the  Divine  will,  —  which  is 
compulsion,  —  but  he  must  consecrate  himself  to  the  Divine  love, 
which  is  choice.  This  is  the  complement  to  God's  act,  without  which 
it  cannot  be  complete.  It  matters  not  what  other  consecrating  there 
may  have  been,  what  setting  apart  by  parents  or  in  church,  what  drop- 
ping of  water,  what  imposition  of  hands,  what  repeating  of  catechism, 
what  signing  of  creed  ;  it  is  all  formal  and  valueless  until  the  man  has 
set  himself  apart  in  solemn  self-dedication.  Balaam  and  Jonah,  and 
many  another,  have  been  appointed  to  great  duties,  —  have  been  sol- 
emnly put  aside  for  special  work,  —  yet  have  utterly  failed  to  do  it, 


CONSECRATION.  149 

because  there  was  no  imvarcl  consecrating,  seconding  and  scaling  that 
of  God  or  man.  The  descending  of  the  spirit  upon  Jesus,  or  any  other 
appointing  of  God,  had  availed  nothing  to  make  him  the  world's  Re- 
deemer, had  he  not  consecrated  himself.  It  was  the  spirit  in  him, 
meeting,  co-operating,  blending  with  the  spirit  from  on  high,  that  gave 
Inm  the  power  to  be  the  Son  of  God  :  it  is  that  iu  us  which  shall  lift 
us  to  he  sons. 

"  Self-consecration,  the  giving  of  one's  self  up  to  the  service  of 
God,  is  the  grand,  decisive,  voluntary  act  of  the  soul,  which  strikes  at 
the  root  of  all  worldlincss  and  selfishness,  and  accepts  without  reserve 
whatever  God  may  order  to  be  done,  or  to  be  borne.  It  is  the  putting 
side  by  side  what  the  world  has  to  ofier,  and  what  God  has  to  offer, 
and  the  unreserved  acceptance  of  the  offer  of  God.  It  is  the  conscious 
and  free  acceptance  of  the  high  destiny  God  lays  before  His  children  ; 
the  resolve  to  dedicate  wholly  body  and  mind  and  heart  as  a  reason- 
al)le,  holy  and  acceptable  sacrifice.  It  is  the  entrance  into  the  spirit  of 
Jesus,  and  the  carrying  of  the  spirit  out  into  all  the  details  of  life,  in 
devotedness  to  man  and  devotion  to  God.  It  is  the  full  ut-one-ing  of 
the  two  wills ;  the  reach  of  the  spirit  iu  man  after  the  spirit  of  God  ; 
the  approach  of  the  finite  towards  the  Infinite  ;  the  soul's  eternal  task 
and  grandest  privilege.  It  is  not  an  act  of  the  will  alone,  one  single, 
great  resolve,  —  the  vision  of  the  Mount,  —  the  luxurious,  beatific  atti- 
tude of  faith  and  hope  and  longing,  into  which  secret  prayer  and 
thought  sometimes  throw  us,  when  we  taste  angels'  food,  and  feel  as 
if  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  were  already  at  our  feet ;  not  the  trans- 
figuration, but  the  after-duty,  the  coming  in  cooler  blood  down  amid 
the  things  of  earth,  the  meeting  and  casting  out  of  the  kind  that  only 
goes  out  by  the  spirit's  fast  and  prayer.  The  true  law  of  every  life, 
the  only  law  of  life,  is  consecration  ;  and  '  consecration  is  not  wrapjjing 
one's  self  in  a  holy  web  in  the  sanctuary,  and  then  coming  forth  after 
prayer  and  meditation,  saying,  "There,  I  am  consecrated."  Con- 
secration is  going  out  into  the  world  where  God  is,  and  using  every 
power  to  His  glory.  It  is  simply  dedicating  one's  life,  its  whole  flow, 
to  His  service.' " 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  Christian  Life  has,  necessa- 
rily, always  something  heroic  in  it.  The  essence  of  hero- 
ism is  self-sacrifice,  and  this,  as  above  appears,  is  the  es- 
sence of  consecration  also.  No  self-consecration  is  possible 
without  it.  In  the  highest  sense,  it  is  true,  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  self-sacrifice  except  in  the  service  of  wrong — since 
we  win  the  real  prizes  of  being  in  exact  proportion  as  we 
servo  God  and  the  Right,  and  sacrifice  ourselves  only  when 
we  sell  our  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage,  in  a  forgetful- 
ness  of  what  is  best  and  broadest  and  most  enduring  in  us 
for  the  sake  of  the  poor  possessions,  or  gratifications,  that 
perish  in  the  using.     Christ  found  vastly  more  for  himself 


150  OUR  NEW  DEPAETURE. 

in  serving  our  race  for  its  salvation,  though  at  so  great  a 
cost,  than  he  could  have  found  had  he  declined  the  work  in 
a  mean  regard  only  for  his  own  ease.  Always,  to  be  most 
noble  is  to  be  most  blessed  ;  and  despite  the  seeming  para- 
dox, we  really  gain  least,  in  respect  to  all  that  constitutes 
us  men  and  women,  when  we  think  of  ourselves  most,  sac- 
rificing least.  But  speaking  in  the  ordinary  sense,  and  of 
those  things  which  most  people  find  it  hardest  to  give  up, 
Christ  sacrificed  himself  for  our  sake,  and  we  sacrifice  self 
whenever,  with  a 

"  self-renouncing  will, 
That  tramples  down  and  casts  aside 
The  baits  of  pleasing  ill," 

we  act  in  a  similar  spirit.  And  in  this  sense,  consecration 
is  always  heroic,  because  it  is  the  utter  renunciation  of  oui'- 
selves  and  our  own  wills,  or  preference,  in  the  purpose  to 
give  ourselves  to  God  and  His  service.  Christ  is  the  most 
heroic  soul  in  all  history,  because  his  consecration  was  like 
his  robe,  '  without  seam.'  "  Not  my  will,  but  thine  be 
done,"  was  not  alone  the  outcry  of  his  anguish  in  Geth- 
semane.  It  was  the  innermost  speech  of  his  whole  life,  in 
a  self-abnegation  that,  with  no  thought  of  himself,  or  his 
own  pleasure,  said  constantly.  For  myself,  nothing — only 
the  privilege  of  serving  and  saving  ;  —  for  God,  and  for 
others,  everything.  How  else  could  his  life  have  had  that 
quality  which  now  most  appeals  to  and  touches  us,  most 
irresistibly  demanding  appreciation  and  response  on  -  our 
part  ?  And-  a  like  heroism,  in  a  like  self-abnegation,  must 
possess  and  inspire  every  life  that  aims  to  be  at  all  like  his. 
There  is  a  prevalent  idea  that  the  life  of  the  Christian  is 
tame  and  spiritless  —  fitting  for  women  and  children,  and 
for  languid,  inert,  flaccid  men,  but  not  at  all  the  thing  for 
brave,  robust,  energetic  masculine  wills.  But  this  is  only 
one  of  numerous  grave  misconceptions  touching  the  subject. 
The  Christian  Life  is  not  only  the  saintliest,  it  is  the  most  he- 
roic life  any  soul  can  live.  The  most  forceful  will,  the  most 
robust  and  invincible  energy,  the  most  aspiring  purpose  finds 
here  a  field  for  its  exercise  —  in  the  battle  that  must  bo 
fought  with  temptation  ;  in  the  struggle  that  must  be  made 


CONSECRATION.  151 

with  selfishness  ;  in  the  wrestle  and  conflict  with  all  the  va- 
rious agencies  which  conspire  to  bring  us  into  captivity  to 
sense  and  sin,  and  in  the  resolve  to  vanquish  '  everything 
that  exalteth  itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God/  and  to  sub- 
ject '  every  thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ.'  In  all  this 
there  is  abundant  scope  for  whatever  there  is  in  any  man  ; 
and  he  who  conquers,  and,  as  the  result,  presents  himself, 
body  and  spirit,  a  living  sacrifice  unto  God,  has  done  the 
grandest  and  most  heroic  thing  any  man  can  do  —  compared 
with  which  all  that  the  world  calls  success  is  empt}',  and  all 
that  it  worships  as  heroism  is  poor  and  vain.  How  finely 
this  is  illustrated  in  Paul,  as  he  pictures  himself  in  the  race, 
forgetting  everything  else,  and  '  reaching  forth '  that  ho 
might  '  win  Christ,  and  be  found  in  him,'  saying,  "  This  one 
thing  I  do,"  —  or  as  he  stands  amidst  the  sorrowing  elders 
of  Ephesus,  foreseeing  '  bonds  and  afflictions,'  but  bravely 
declaring,  "  Yet  none  of  these  things  move  me,  neither 
count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself"  I  Here  was  consecration 
without  reserve,  and  here,  therefore,  was  heroism  such  as 
the  world  has  seldom  seen.  And  our  call  is,  to  be  heroes, 
every  one  of  us,  like  him,  in  a  consecration  as  entire  —  as 
a  soldier,  giving  himself  to  his  country,  in  this  act  renounces 
everything  but  the  will  to  do  his  duty  as  he  is  commanded, 
for  his  country's  sake  ;  as  a  mother,  giving  herself  to 
motherhood  and  its  obligations,  surrenders  every  other  will 
or  purpose  but  the  purpose  to  serve  her  children  faith- 
fully, be  the  requirements  of  such  fidelity  what  they  may  ; 
as  Christ,  giving  himself  to  us  and  our  redemption,  had  no 
other  will  but  to  accept  whatever  the  task  included,  and  to 
make  it  his  very  "  meat  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent 
him,  and  to  finish  His  work." 

Consecration  is  thus  the  key-stone  in  the  arch  of  Chris- 
tian Experience.  First  comes  Conviction  —  or  the  awak- 
ening of  the  conscience  and  the  heart  to  a  sense  of  duty  ; 
then  Conversion  —  or  the  turning  of  the  soul  definitely 
towards  God  and  an  unselfish  and  saintly  life  ;  and  then 
Consecration  —  or  the  solemn  and  continuous  giving  of  one's 
self  to  Christ,  — 

"  When  we  have  sworn  and  steadfast  mean, 
Counting  the  cost,  in  all  t'espy 
Our  God,  —  in  all  ourselves  deny." 


152  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

It  is  the  culmination  of  all  preceding  experience  and  resolve 

—  as  marriage  is  the  culmination  of  love  and  all  its  pledges. 
It  is  the   marriage  of  the  soul  ia  solemn  covenant  to  Christ 

—  to  live  with  him,  and  in  him,  and  for  him,  until  death  — 
and  forever.  Without  this,  everything  else  in  the  way  of 
discipleship  is  incomplete  —  as  roots  without  flowers  or 
fruit  are  incomplete  ;  as  a  foundation  without  superstruc- 
ture, as  love  without  marriage,  is  incomplete.  This  alone 
puts  us  into  the  calendar  of  God's  faithful  and  accepted 
ones.  Generous  impulses  are  not  despised.  Respectable 
habits  and  conventional  virtues  fail  not  to  be  counted  for 
whatever  they  are  worth.  But  these,  whatever  the  life  they 
produce,  never  answer  the  highest  demands.  Only  conse- 
cration does  this  —  because  it  alone  imparts  the  element  of 
heroic  surrender  and  purpose,  and  thus  makes  all  life,  from 
innermost  thought  to  outermost  action,  a  renunciation  of 
self,  and  an  offering  to  God. 

Has  this  subject  hitherto  had  the  place  in  our  thoughts 
and  labors  to  which  it  is  entitled  ?  We  have  insisted  on  a 
good  life ;  but  have  we  urged  and  emphasized  the  necessity 
of  this  absolute  and  supreme  Consecration,  as  the  facts  and 
principles  in  the  case  require  ?  Something  of  the  spirit 
thus  demanded  we  have  had,  giving  us  —  among  our  min- 
isters, some  as  devoted,  unsellish,  heroic,  as  have  ever 
lifted  hand  or  voice  for  the  Gospel's  sake,  and  among  our 
people,  some  as  earnest,  self-denying,  saintl}^  as  tlie  church, 
tinder  any  name,  has  ever  known.  But,  as  previous  chap- 
ters have  indicated,  the  proportion  of  such  has  not  been 
what  it  should  have  been,  nor  has  our  sj'^stem  of  effort  con- 
templated such  a  result  with  the  solicitude  it  should  have 
done.  We  need  an  awakening  and  a  New  Departure  in 
this  respect,  therefore.  Perhaps  this  was  sufficiently  im- 
plied in  our  last  chapter,  no  Experimental  Religion  being 
possible  without  a  consecrating  purpose.  But  the  subject 
is  so  important,  and  has,  moreover,  commanded  among  us 
so  little  of  the  attention  to  which  it  is  entitled,  that  I  have 
thought  it  deserving  of  distinct  and  special  presentation.  It 
must  henceforth  occupy  a  place  in  our  regards  and  methods 
more  commensurate  with  its  real  deserts,  or  our  personal 
service  of  Christ    will  never  have   the    self-surrender   and 


CONSECRATION.  153 

heroism  which  can  alone  give  it  completeness,  and  our 
Church  will  fatally  lack  the  enthusiasm  and  spiritual  fervor 
without  which  it  must  lail  of  the  work  to  which  it  is  called. 
If  anything,  Christ  must  be  paramount.  No  other  view 
can  bo  consistently  taken  of  our  obligations  to  him  and 
the  Christian  Life.  Is  there  a  God,  and  do  we  belong  to 
Ilim  ?  Is  Christ  a  reality,  and  has  he  died  to  redeem  us  ? 
Is  all  our  power  to  think,  to  feel,  to  do,  from  God,  and  are 
all  our  best  ideas,  and  finest  resources,  and  richest  privileges 
and  opportunities,  only  parts  of  the  result  of  what  Christ  has 
done  ?  Then  what  alternative  have  we  but  to  confess  our 
obligations,  and  to  give  ourselves  to  God  in  Christ  with  the 
entire  unreserve  which  these  things,  if  they  be  facts  and  not 
fables,  so  obviously  require  ?  Or,  what  reason  has  there  ever 
been  why  any  should  iorget  self,  and  consecrate  themselves 
to  God,  that  does  not  equally  exist  in  the  case  of  every  one 
of  us  ?  We  just  now  looked  at  Paul,  in  his  utter  and  heroic 
self-devotion.  Did  he  do  more  than  his  duty  ?  Or,  did  any 
of  the  Apostles,  or  any  of  the  saints  and  martyrs  who, 

"  in  life  and  death, 
With  Christ,  their  Lord,  in  view, 
Learned  from  the  Holy  Spirit's  breath 
To  sufTer  and  to  do  "  ? 

If  not,  by  what  motive  were  they  addressed  that  is  not  as 
imperatively  addressed  to  us,  or  in  what  respect  is  the  obli- 
gation of  any  one  of  us  less  than  theirs  ? 

Another  consideration  is  not  unworthy  of  mention.  Does 
not  self-respect  suggest  that,  having  become  identified  with 
any  work,  or  responsible  for  any  duty,  we  shall  aim  to  be 
all  that  the  work  or  duty  requires  ?  How  much  self-respect 
has  one  who,  having  enlisted  as  a  soldier,  is  willing  to  be  a 
deserter  or  a  coward,  or  fails  to  consecrate  himself,  soul  and 
body,  to  his  country  and  to  his  duty  as  its  champion  and 
defender  ?  Or,  how  much  self-respect  has  a  wife,  or  a  mother, 
who  is  not  anxious  to  be  all  that  a  wife  or  a  mother  should 
be  ?  Apply  the  same  principle  to  the  subject  before  us,  and 
what  follows  ?  Making  any  pretence  to  faith  in  God,  or 
Christ,  does  not  self-respect  require  that  we  be  no  less  anx- 
ious to  fulfil   the  whole   duty  such  a  faith   imposes  ?     But 


154  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

who  does  this,  or  can  do  it,  without  the  central  and  control- 
ling consecration  which  Christ  illustrates,  and  which  the 
whole  Bible  enjoins  ? 

As  the  writer  already  quoted  admirably  says,*  — 

''  The  failure  of  men  so  largely  in  the  true  life  is  because  they  will 
not  comprehend  what  an  utter  thing  consecration  is,  and  how  utterli/ 
impossible  the  kingdom  is  without  it.  The  difference  between  a  man 
■who  has  consecrated  himself,  and  the  man  who  has  made  up  his  mind 
that  on  the  whole  it  is  better  for  him  to  lead  a  correct  life,  is  as  the  dif- 
ference between  fiction  and  fact.  Nothing  can  turn  the  man  consecrate. 
Like  Paul,  he  counts  all  loss  gain  ;  and  the  catalogue  of  pains  and  pen- 
alties is  but  his  inspiration.  What  would  deter  others  stimulates  him  : 
what  would  dismay,  confirms.  No  high  endeavor,  no  grand  result, 
comes  otherwise.  It  is  the  man  rising  to  his  noblest  height,  doing  all 
things  through  the  Christ  strengthening  him ;  the  man  no  way  luke- 
warm, but  kindling  with,  possessed  by,  '  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity,' 
and  so  treading  down  all  intervening  obstacles,  till,  more  than  con- 
queror, he  wins  '  that  crown  with  peerless  glories  bright.' 

"  I  know  just  what  every  one  says  down  in  his  heart  as  he  reads 
this.  I  know  how  we  shrink  from  such  deliberate  surrender  of  our- 
selves, our  all,  to  God's  law  ;  and  I  know  how  utterly  life  fails  of  its 
grandeur,  how  it  loses  the  promise  in  this,  and  its  hope  in  the  life  to 
come,  because  this  one  absolutely  necessary  thing  we  will  not  do.  We 
are  willing  enough  to  serve  God  if  we  can  only  make  our  own  reserva- 
tions. Rebels  so  gladly  take  the  oath  of  allegiance.  But  it  is  the 
reservation  which  kills  the  quality  of  the  loyalty  :  it  is  the  reservation 
that  makes  of  us,  not  followers  of  God,  as  dear  children,  but  timid  and 
time-serving  and  unreliable  slaves,  —  in  the  thing  easy,  the  thing  con- 
venient, the  thing  in  which  we  see  immediate  reward  or  penalty,  obe- 
dient ;  but  when  the  pressure  comes,  and  the  whole  man  is  called  on, 
when  a  cross  is  to  be  borne,  hesitating,  half  faithful,  or  recreant. 
There  are  times  of  tribulation  in  every  human  experience,  often  unrec- 
ognized by  other  men,  —  things  in  our  inner  secret  lives,  as  well  as  of 
our  outward  and  visible,  —  when  nothing  can  stand  but  the  soul  w'hich 
is  all  God's  ;  there  are  times  w'hen  men  terribly  fail,  when  the  disaster 
of  their  moral  overthrow  is  broad  and  deep.  It  is  only  the  old  story. 
The  house  is  built  upon  the  sand.  The  life  is  not  riveted  into  the  core 
of  the  rock.  There  has  been  some  reserve  in  the  consecration,  —  a 
secret  flaw,  which  at  the  test-moment  betl'ays  itself,  and  wrecks  the 
man.  We  do  not  want  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  flaws.  In  the  metal  thor- 
oughly welded  flaws  will  not  be.  Make  self-consecration  thorough, 
and  the  gates  of  hell  cannot  prevail." 

*  These  several  extracts  are  from  an  article  by  Rev.  J.  F.  W.  Ware, 
credited  by  one  of  our  papers  to  the  "  Monthly  Journal."  They  so  pre- 
cisely express  what  I  desired  to  say,  that  I  deemed  it  wiser  to  appropriate 
the  language,  and  give  credit  accordingly,  than  to  undertake  to  clothe 
the  same  ideas  in  words  of  my  own. 


CONSECRATION.  155 

Shall  not  this  whole  subject  have  the  increased  attention 
among-  us  which  it  deserves,  and  will  we  not  as  a  Church  at 
once  commit  ourselves  to  the  New  Departure  concerning  it 
whereunto  we  are  so  clearly  called  ?     Universalisni  above 
all  other  forms  of  Christian  Faith  fulfils  all  the  conditions 
of  a  consecrating  power.      How  it  fills  and  satisfies  the  be- 
lieving soul  I     What  revelations  it  makes  of  God's  love  and 
of  Christ's  redeeming  force,  and  what  visions  it  opens  of  the 
harmony  in  which  all  God's  creatures  are  to  be  reconciled 
to  Him  and  brought  into  unity  with  each  other !     How  it 
glorifies  alike  joy  and  sorrow  in  the  radiance  of  a  changeless 
beneficence  !     How  it  pours  balm  into  every  bleeding  heart  1 
And  while  it  so  proclaims  the  inexorable   certainty  of  retri- 
bution,  how  it  plies  us   with  motives  —  irresistible,  when 
understood  —  to  know  only  the  will  of  God  as  our  rule  of ' 
life,  and  to  yield  ourselves  to  Christ's  guidance  as   the  sole 
condition  of  the  highest  good!       Could  we    but  once    be 
touched  by  the  power  of  all  that  our  faith  thus  is,  we  should 
need  no  argument,  or  exhortation,  to  move  us  to  consecrate 
ourselves  to  it,  and  to  the   service  of  the  Father   and  the 
Saviour  who   speak  to   us   through   it.      Our  whole    being 
would  be  flooded  with  a  sense  of  obligation  and  privilege  ; 
and  glowing  with   grateful  emotion  and  holy  purpose,^ve 
should  each  prostrate  ourselves  at  the   feet  of  Christ,  ex- 
claiming,— 

"  More  love  to  thee,  O  Christ, 

More  love  to  thee  ! 
Hear  thou  tlie  prayer  I  make 

On  bended  knee ; 
This  is  my  earnest  plea  — 
More  love,  0  Christ,  to  thee, 

More  love  to  thee ! 

"  Once  earthly  joy  I  craved, 

Sought  peace  and  rest ; 
Now  thee  alone  I  seek  : 

Give  what  is  best. 
This  all  my  prayer  shall  be  — 
More  love,  O  Christ,  to  thee, 

More  love  to  thee  !  " 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    BIBLE. 

It  is  one  of  the  honorable  distinctions  of  the  Universal- 
IST  Church,  that  it  has,  from  the  first,  been  built  "  on  the 
foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  him- 
self being  the  chief  corner-stone."  Strangely  outlawed, 
ecclesiastically,  as  infidels,  and  popularly  regarded  as  en- 
emies of  the  Bible  insidiously  concealing  its  rejection  under 
its  pretended  use,  we  have  all  the  time  steadily  made  faith 
in  it,  next  to  character,  the  cardinal  condition  to  our  fellow- 
ship. No  Christians,  indeed,  have  evinced  a  profounder  or 
more  sincere  reverence  for  the  Bible,  or  have  furnished 
abler  or  more  earnest  defenders  of  it,  or  have  more  con- 
stantly or  conscientiously  deferred  to  its  authority,  than  we. 
In  the  whole  history  of  theological  misrepresentation,  there 
is  nothing  grosser  —  in  the  case  of  those  who  have  known 
better,  nothing  more  wicked  —  than  the  systematic  falsifi- 
cation of  our  position  in  this  particular,  —  a  falsification 
that  has  doubtless  done  more  than  any  other  single  cause 
to  make  Universalism  odious  in  the  estimation  of  Christian 
people,  and  to  procure  for  us  the  treatment  we  have  so 
unjustly  received  as  '  heathen-men  and  publicans.'  No 
odium,  no  unkind  treatment  was  ever  more  undeserved.  The 
Bible  has  been  our  final  appeal  always  ;  and  during  these 
past  thirty  years  especially,  amidst  the  speculations  of  Ger- 
man rationalism,  and  a  '  liberal  Christianity '  that  has  been 
but  a  second  edition  of  old-fashioned  Deism  '  revised,'  while 
many  others  have  yielded,  or  oscillated,  we  have  stood  like 
a  rock, — conceding  all  that  genuine  scholarship  and  hon- 
est criticism  have  required,  but  adhering  immovabl}^  to  the 
Divine  origin  of  the  Bible,  and  affirming  its  authority  with 
the  same  positiveness  with  which  we  have  affirmed  the 
existence  of  God  and  the  reality  of  Christ  himself  In  this 
respect,  no  New  Departure  is  possible  for  us  in  the  direo- 

156 


THE   BIBLE.  157 

tion  of  faith,  for  neither  we,  nor  any  other  church,  can 
stand  more  firmly  by  the  Bible,  or  more  strenuously  insist 
on  its  Divine  worth  and  claims,  than  we  have  done.  And 
yet,  we  nevertheless  need  a  New  Departure  concerning  it, 
and  shall  not  cease  very  seriously  to  sufier  in  our  most 
vital  interests,  so  long  as  this  Departure  fails  to  be  fittingly 
made. 

Two  questions  of  fundamental  interest  meet  us  touching 
the  Bible  :  —  the  first  concerns  its  origin  ;  the  second  con- 
cerns our  need  of  it.  With  the  first,  it  does  not  fall  witliin 
the  purpose  of  these  pages,  except  incidentally,  to  deal ; 
but  the  second  sustains  such  relations  to  the  fact  with 
which  this  chapter  is  specially  concerned,  that  only  through 
some  notice  of  it  can  we  bo  best  introduced  to  what  is  to 
follow. 

The  chapter  on  Experimental  Eeligion  referred  to  what 
God  is  as  the  central  Life  of  the  universe.  And  because 
of  what  He  thus  is,  a  knowledge  of  Him,  that  there  may 
be  conformity  to  His  will,  is  a  necessity  of  souls.  Imagine 
the  consequences  should  our  globe,  or  the  planets  in  space, 
break  away  from  His  hand,  or  should  a  tree,  or  a  field  of 
wheat,  try  the  experiment  of  growing  in  some  other  way 
than  in  accordance  with  the  methods  He  has  ordained,  and 
we  only  imagine  results  in  the  material  world  analogous 
to  those  which  actually  occur  whenever  and  wherever  a 
soul  sets  up  for  itself,  and  undertakes  to  live  in  defiance 
or  in  disregard  of   Him   as   the   centre   and   law   of  moral 


being. 


But  how  shall  we  attain  this  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
the  moral  conditions  He  has  established,  which  is  so  essen- 
tial for  us  ?  Is  it  said  that  all  Nature  is  open  to  us,  and 
that,  with  this  and  the  spiritual  instincts  and  intuitions  of 
our  own  souls  —  reason,  conscience,  and  the  religious  sen- 
timent, we  have  all  that  is  requisite  for  our  instruction  ? 
But  how  much  will  these  teach  us  ?  Look  at  the  idolater 
and  the  polytheist,  look  wherever  men,  of  themselves  as 
only  thus  aided,  have  constructed  theologies,  and  attempted 
to  solve  the  problems  of  God  and  of  our  own  being,  duty 
and  destiny,  and  see.  All  men  have  Nature  and  its  teach- 
ings, such  as  they  are.     All  men  have  more  or  less  of  rea- 


158  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

SOD,  conscience,  and  the  religious  sentiment.  But  do  all 
men  know  God,  or  have  all  men  attained,  or  even  ap- 
proached just  conceptions  of  His  character,  or  correct  esti- 
mates of  human  relations  and  obligations,  or  a  satisfactory 
philosophy  of  death  ?  God  is  just,  indeed,  and  holds  no 
man  responsible  for  more  than  He  has  given  him.  Hence, 
we  are  never  to  overlook,  enough  is  furnished  in  these 
sources  of  natural  suggestion  and  instruction  to  make  it 
proper  that  even  those  least  favored  shall  be  held  to  moral 
account,  because  supplied  with  the  materials  for  some  ideas 
of  a  Supreme  Power  and  moral  duty.  Accordingly, 
though  arguing  to  show  the  insufficiency  of  these  things 
for  the  highest  purposes,  Paul  distinctly  testifies  of  God 
that  "His  eternal  power  and  Godhead,  though  they  be  in- 
visible, yet  "  have  been  "  seen  ever  since  the  world  was 
made,  being  understood  by  His  works,  that  they  [who  hold 
the  truth  in  unrighteousness]  might  have  no  excuse  "  (Rom. 
i.  20)  ;  and  further,  that  "the  Gentiles  .  .  .  though  they 
have  no  [specially  announced  moral]  law,  are  a  law  to 
themselves,  since  they  manifest  the  work  of  the  law  written 
in  their  hearts,  and  their  conscience  also  bears  them  Avit- 
ness,  while  their  inward  thoughts,  answering  one  to  the 
other,  either  justify  or  else  condemn  them  "  *  (Rom.  ii. 
14,  15).  And  yet,  though  this  is  true,  and  all  that  could 
be  thus  given  has  been  imparted,  still,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  it  does  not  and  cannot  answer  all  that  is  required  — 
any  more  than  the  ability  of  a  child  to  attain  some  things 
of  itself  enables  it  thus  to  gather  all  that  is  important  for 
it  to  know.  The  child  needs  help  from  some  superior  mind, 
and  without  it  will  come,  at  length,  to  a  point  beyond 
which  it  can  proceed  no  farther.  We,  it  is  true,  ripen  out 
of  our  childish  capacities  as  the  years  pass  ;  but  in  pres- 
ence of  the  grand  and  infinite  mysteries  of  being,  we  are 
always  children,  unequal,  of  ourselves,  to  the  task  of 
grasping  and  solving  them.  At  the  most,  when  what  is 
called  Natural  Religion  has  done  all  it  can  for  us,  we  get 
only  rudimentary  hints,  —  never  full  and  definite  instruc- 
tion ;  are  able  simply  to  walk  along  the  skirts  of  the  delec- 

*  Conybeare  and  Howson. 


THE  BIBLE.  159 

table  mountains,  —  never  to  scale  their  heights  and  get 
their  broadest  outlooks.  For  these,  we  must  have  help 
from  some  source  outside  ourselves,  and  higher  than  we  — 
interpreting  Nature  for  us  more  perfectly  than  we  can ; 
informing  reason,  educating  conscience,  enlightening  the 
religious  sentiment ;  and  except  as  this  help  is  given,  and 
in  condescension  to  our  inability,  God  thus  makes  him- 
self and  related  spiritual  facts  and  truths  known,  no  clear 
knowledge  or  assurance  concerning  them  is  possible  to  us. 

There  is  a  broad  distinction  between  such  spiritual 
knowledge  and  what  is  called  scientific  knowledge,  which 
many  fail  to  consider.  Do  we  need  any  special  help  from 
God  to  instruct  us  in  Chemistry,  Natural  Philosophy,  or 
Mathematics  ?  it  is  not  unfrequently  asked,  with  much 
show  of  confidence  —  as  if  our  competency  to  make  our 
way  unaided  in  these  implies  an  equal  competency  in  the 
domain  of  spiritual  truth.  But,  unfortunately  for  this  kind 
of  argument,  there  is  an  important  difference  between 
these  departments  of  knowledge.  In  all  scientific  or  math- 
ematical investigations,  we  have  some  certain  data  of  fact 
or  figures,  to  commence  with,  and  thus,  for  every  step  we 
take,  have  the  solid  rock  to  stand  upon  —  because  having 
the  means  for  testing  and  demonstrating  the  correctness  of 
our  conclusions.  But  it  is  not  so  when  we  enter  upon  re- 
ligious investigations.  The  required  data  are  nowhere  to 
be  had.  Like  one  attempting  an  hypothesis  concerning  the 
inhabitants  of  the  sun,  or  trying  to  solve  an  arithmetical 
problem  that  furnishes  no  initial  figures,  we  are  in  the 
realm  of  pure  conjecture,  with  no  facts  to  build  on  ;  are 
dealing  altogether  with  '  unknown  quantities,'  with  no 
known  quantity  as  a  starting-point.  "  Give  me  a  place  to 
stand,"  said  Archimedes,  "  and  I  will  move  the  world." 
No  doubt ;  but  where  is  he  to  stand  ?  True,  as  has  been 
intimated,  there  are  some  data  which,  left  to  ourselves,  we 
are  warranted  in  regarding  as  certainties,  and  on  the  basis 
of  which  some  rudimentary  moral  and  religious  ideas  may 
be  built ;  but  they  are  not  the  kind  required  for  a  complete 
and  satisfactory  theology.  They  give  us  glimpses  and 
suggestions  ;  but  when  we  push  our  inquiries,  and  ask  who 
God  is,  and  precisely  what  are  His  relations  to  us,  and  who 


160  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

we  are,  and  what  are  our  duties,  and  what  is  to  become  of 
us,  we  at  once  find  ourselves  launched  upon  a  sea  of  uncer- 
tainty, where,  without  chart,  compass,  light-house,  or 
sounding-line,  we  can  only  sail  by  guess  ;  are  hopelessly 
confronted  by  moral  and  spiritual  summits,  rising  sheer 
before  us,  up  which  there  are  no  steps  of  induction  or 
inference,  no  processes  of  logic,  no  certainties  from  any 
source  about  us,  or  within  us,  by  which  we  can  climb  into 
any  knowledge,  or  absolute  faith,  by  way  of  demonstration. 

This  the  whole  history  of  our  race,  from  first  to  last, 
proclaims.  At  all  events,  it  proclaims  that  men  of  them- 
selves do  not  attain  any  certitude  or  demonstration  ;  and 
considering  the  universality  of  this  fact,  not  only  the  fair, 
but  the  inevitable  conclusion  is  that  they  can  not.  Else, 
why  do  we  not  somewhere  find  men  outside  the  line  of 
what  is  alleged  to  be  supernatural  illumination,  making 
some  progi-ess  in  religious  ideas  ?  That  we  do  not,  save 
as,  here  and  there,  an  exceptional  mind  has  gone  beyond 
the  masses  in  its  unavailing  speculations  —  speculations 
which  have  seldom  had  any  practical  fruit,  is  known  to  all 
who  know  anything  of  the  religious  history  of  mankind. 
Look  at  China.  Except  as  it  has  been  inoculated  with  the 
ideas  of  Christendom  through  the  freer  intercourse  of  these 
later  years,  it  presents  to-day  the  same  idolatry,  the  same 
low  religious  conceptions  as  centuries  ago.  So  with  Japan. 
So  with  India.  So  —  saying  nothing  of  those  lower  down 
in  the  scale  of  development  —  with  every  comparatively 
cultivated  or  half-civilized  people  of  whom  we  have  any 
information.  Why  should  this  be  so,  if  men  unaided  are 
sufficient  for  all  the  purposes  of  moral  and  religious  knowl- 
edsce  ?  Does  not  the  fact  that  it  is  so  demonstrate  man's 
incompetency,  of  himself,  to  deal  with  the  spiritual  prob- 
lems which  press  upon  us,  and  so  demonstrate  the  necessity 
for  some  direct  and  special  communication  from  God  ? 

The  Bible  purports  to  be  such  a  communication  —  or, 
rather,  the  record  of  a  series  of  such  communications.  Is 
it  worthy  of  our  confidence  as  such,  and  can  we  accept  its 
enunciations  concerning  God,  and  truth,  and  duty,  as  giv- 
ing us  the  certain  knowledge  we  need?  If  it  is  —  and 
here  is  the   point  for  which   the   considerations  foregoing 


THE  BIBLE.  161 

have  been  designed  to  prepare  —  if  it  is,  then  the  necessity 
in  answer  to  which  it  was  bestowed,  no  less  demands  that  it 
shall  be  used  ;  nor  can  it  be  neglected,  or  pushed  aside  by 
anything  else,  except  at  the  peril  of  all  the  interests  it  is 
intended  to  serve.  If  it  be,  in  fact,  from  God,  it  is  not  a 
thing  to  be  trifled  with.  What  it  contains  is  for  the  life  of 
souls  and  the  life  of  the  world  ;  and  spiritual  darkness  and 
death  are  the  penalties  of  ignoring,  or  undertaking  to  live 
without  it.  What  but  this  is  the  sum  of  the  universal 
testimony  it  has  made  fur  itself?  'Sacred  books'  are, 
indeed,  not  uncommon  among  the  nations  ;  and  there  are 
those  who  would  have  us  regard  the  Bible  as  only  of  the 
same  character  as  all  the  rest.  But  look  along  the  track  of 
any  other  '  sacred  books  '  which  the  world  has  ever  heard 
of,  — look,  one  by  one,  through  the  several  fields  they  have 
professed  to  illumine,  and,  as  compared  with  the  results 
which  have  attended  the  Bible,  what  have  they,  any  of  them, 
ever  done  for  man,  or  for  men  ?  Even  out  of  our  Christian 
churches  some  are  issuing,  in  these  days,  who,  forgetting 
what,  under  God,  has  made  them  in  all  that  is  best  in  their 
manhood  or  womanhood,  are  glorifying  Buddhism,  vaunting 
it  as  not  inferior  to,  if  it  does  not  excel,  Christianity.  But, 
as  Wendell  Phillips  has  well  said,  "  to  all  this,  the  answer 
is,  India,  past  and  present.'^  And  so  in  respect  to  all  that 
may,  directly  or  indirectly,  be  set  up  to  rival  or  equal  the 
Bible,  the  one  answer  is,  Tell  us  what  it  has  done!  The 
awakened  but  unlettered  sailor,  wishing  to  purchase  a  Bible, 
happily  designatod  it  as  "  the  Book  that  speaks  for  itself;  " 
and  in  nothing  does  it  more  eloquently,  or  more  demonstra- 
bly, speak  for  itself  than'  in  the  work  of  enlightenment, 
healing  and.  quickening  it  has  accomplished.  History  is  to 
be  seai'ched  in  vain  for  any  similar  \vork,  or  for  any  that 
begins  to  approach  it. 

Let  it  be  granted,  if  any  so  desire,  that  the  Bible  has  not 
equally  illuminated  all  minds  where  its  light  has  shined,  nor 
conquered  all  error  or  evil  where  it  has  wrought.  Let  it  be 
granted  that  many  who  have  professed  to  be  its  friends  have 
been  corrupt  and  cruel,  and  that  were  any  one  to  retort 
the  question  concerning  those  to  whom  it  has  come,  which 
was  just  now  asked  of  those  having  only  Nature  and  their 
11 


162  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

own  spiritual  instincts  and  intuitions  for  their  teachers,  the 
question,  viz.  :  Have  they  all  attained  just  conceptions  of 
God,  or  correct  estimates  of  human  relations  and  obligations, 
or  a  satisfactory  philosophy  of  death  ?  we  should  be  com- 
pelled to  answer,  very  emphatically,  No.  But  what  gift  of 
God  fully,  or  soon,  accomplishes  all  for  which  it  was  de- 
signed ?  In  its  very  nature,  the  work  intended  through  the 
Bible  is  progressive,  and  therefore  gradual — as  the  work 
of  the  sun,  every  day,  is  by  degrees  to  dissipate  the  dark- 
ness, not  instantaneously  to  transform  night  into  noonday. 
The  Bible  is  leaven ;  and  of  necessity,  all  leaven  does  its 
work  slowly,  atom  by  atom.  But  let  any  one,  friend  or 
foe,  candidly  survey  the  field  of  the  Bible's  influence,  or 
apply  any  honest  test  as  to  the  extent  of  its  leavening 
power,  and  what,  unmistakably,  does  he  see  ?  What 
transformations  !  What  victories  over  darkness  and  wrong  ! 
What  consolations  I  What  awakenings  !  What  rough 
places  smoothed,  and  crooked  places  made  straight !  What 
births  and  growths  of  finer  and  loftier  sentiment,  of  nobler 
character,  of  holier  and  saintlier  living  I  Account  for  it  as 
we  may,  the  fact  is  indisputable  that  wherever  the  Bible 
has  become  most  an  element  in  the  popular  life,  there  are 
found  the  most  of  those  fruits  which  might  be  expected  to 
grow  from  the  seeds  of  a  Divine  Revelation.  The  worst 
and  darkest  periods  in  the  histor}^  of  the  Jewish  nation  were 
the  periods  when  their  Scriptures  were  most  forgotten  and 
neglected  ;  and  the  darkest  and  saddest  portions  of  Chris- 
tian history  are  those  in  which  the  Bible  was  least  in  the 
people's  hands,  and  its  spirit  least  in  their  hearts.  Undenia- 
bly, the  argument  of  results  is  altogether  on  the  side  of  the 
Bible  ;  and  if  a  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits,  the  conclusion  is 
inevitable  that  the  Bible  is  Divine.  How  otherwise  are  we 
to  account  for  what  it  has  done  ?  Let  those  who  declare  it 
not  of  God  answer  this  question. 

Meanwhile,  not  now  further  to  press  this  argument  of 
results,  we  may  confidently  hold  the  Bible  in  the  face  of  the 
world,  and,  whether  it  be  Divine  or  not,  can  say,  in  the  graphic 
language  of  the  prophet.  Unto  this\et  men  seek:  "if  they 
will  not  speak  according  to  this  word,  .  .  .  every  one  of 
them  shall  pass  through  the  land  distressed  and  famished ; 


THE  BIBLE.  163 

.  .  .  and  ho  shall  cast  his  eyes  upwards  and  look  down  to 
the  earth,  and  lo  !  distress  and  darkness  !  gloom,  tribula- 
tion and  accumulated  darkness"  *  (Isa.  viii.  20—22)  1  No 
words  can  better  describe  what  comes  of  rejecting-,  or  of  not 
having-  the  Bible.  Where  do  we  find  the  hig*hest  concep- 
tions of  God  —  conceptions  which,  while  far  beyond  any 
that  unaided  man  has  ever  attained,  are  yet  such  as  lie  most 
easily  in  our  minds  and  hearts,  most  accordant  with  all  that 
Nature  suggests,  and  with  what  reason,  conscience  and  the 
religious  sentiment  demand  ?  Where  do  we  find  the  clearest 
and  best  ideas  of  duty,  and  the  firmest  and  most  intelligent 
assurance  of  Immortality,  and  the  largest  measure  of  moral 
and  intellectual  development,  and  the  most  elevated  charac- 
ter, and  the  mcst  advanced  type  of  what  we  mean  by  civili- 
zation ?  Where,  but  exactly  where  the  Bible  has  most  fully 
done  its  work  ?  The  zone  of  light  around  the  globe  is  the 
zone  of  the  Bible.  The  leading  countries  of  the  world  — the 
countries  whose  people  are  most  and  have  most,  are  the 
countries  where  the  Bible  is  most  read,  and  in  which  it  may 
claim  to  have  had  its  practical  worth  best  put  to  the 
test.  In  proportion  as  we  go  outside  its  ideas  and  moral 
force,  we  go  into  shadow :  —  go  into  the  midst  of  supersti- 
tion and  general  ignorance  ;  go  into  the  midst  of  despotism 
or  a  savage  freedom  ;  go  where  man  is  degraded  and  woman 
a  slave  ;  go  where  it  is  literally  true,  in  respect  to  all  highest 
human  needs  and  interests,  that  souls  "  pass  through  the  land 
distressed  and  famished,"  and  where  everything  attests  the 
absence  of  any  sufficient  power  to  instruct  and  elevate  the 
people. 

Contrast  the  condition  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  countries, 
—  or  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  portions  of  the  same 
country.  Why  should  not  those  that  are  Catholic  be  as  far 
advanced  in'  freedom,  in  general  intelligence,  in  material 
enterprise,  in  all  the  elements  of  the  highest  civilization,  as 
those  that  are  Protestant  ?  Can  any  reason  be  found  in  the 
nature  or  capacities  of  the  people  ?  I  am  not  aware  that  it 
can.  But  who  does  not  know  that  an  immeasurable  differ- 
ence is  shown  in  such  a  comparison  ?     The  puritans  came  to 

*  Lowth's  translation. 


164  OUR   NEW    DEPARTURE. 

the  rugged  shores  of  New  England,  bringing  nothing  but 
themselves  and  the  Bible,  and  finding  no  gold,  no  soft  and 
genial  climate,  no  rich  and  productive  soil  —  finding  only 
an  inhospitable  climate  and  aland  of  granite  and  of  ice.  The 
cavaliers  and  adventurers  of  Spain  went  to  the  fair  and  fruit- 
ful fields  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  finding  a  delicious  climate,  a 
productive  soil,  and  mines  inestimably  rich  in  gold,  but 
carrying  no  Bible.  What  is  the  result  ?  New  England  is 
what  she  is  ;  —  the  Spanish  colonies  are  what  they  are.  To 
the  same  effect,  Spain  and  Portugal  in  contrast  with  Eng- 
land. South  America  in  contrast  with  the  United  States,  — 
or,  if  one  wishes  to  look  into  the  same  country,  the  Catholic 
and  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland,  the  Catholic  and 
Protestant  districts  in  Ii-eland,  Louisiana  and  Massachu- 
setts in  our  own  land,  are  further  illustrations.  Why  this 
difference  ?  Various  causes  unquestionably  combine  to 
explain  it ;  but  the  chief  is  to  be  found  in  a  series  of  facts 
of  which  the  Bible  is  the  centre.  Protestantism,  based  on 
the  right  of  private  judgment,  puts  the  Bible  into  the 
people's  hands,  and  imbibing  its  ideas,  the  people  become 
quickened  by  its  moral  power  ;  while  Catholicism  withholds 
the  Bible,  or  gives  it  to  the  people  only  through  the  lips  of 
priests,  or  in  the  interpretations  of  the  church.  During 
these  last  few  years,  Italy  seems  to  have  re-awakened, 
and  more  recently,  the  political  regeneration  of  Spain 
seems  to  have  begun  ;  but  the  complete  resurrection  and 
enfranchisement  of  their  people  will  come  only  when  they 
shall  be  a  Bible-reading  and  Bible  reverencing  people,  and 
when  home  and  church  and  state  shall  feel  the  inspirations 
which  the  Bible  can  alone  shed  into  them.  And  could  the 
Bible  be  to-day  given  to  poor,  priest-ridden  Ireland,  or  to 
Mexico,  or  to  South  America,  so  that  the  masses  of  the 
people  should  be  transfused  with  its  ideas,  and  nurtured  and 
established  in  its  principles,  a  new  life  would  at  once  bo 
manifest  in  them  all,  and  the  contrast  now  so  painfully 
apparent  between  them  and  Protestant  countries  would 
straightway  begin  to  disappear. 

These  are  facts  often  referred  to,  but  that  never  yet  have 
commanded  the  general  consideration  they  deserve.  "  This 
is   the  cannon  that  is  to  emancipate  Ilabj,"   Garibaldi  was, 


THE   BIBLE.  1G5 


) 


some  years  ago,  reported  to  have  said  to   his  son,  handing- 
him  a  Bible.     The  remark  may  or  may  not  have  been  made  ; 
but  it  is  worthy  to  liave  been,  for  it  is  true.      As  has,  in  sub- 
stance, been  said,  tlie  liistory  of  the   Bible   is   that  of  the 
worhl's    best   civilization.       Everywhere,   it  has    been   the 
herald  of  social  progress  and  a  ripening  culture.     Nay,  more 
than  this,   to  change  the  figure,  has  it  not  proved,  wher- 
ever planted,  '  the  tree  of  life,'  whose  leaves  have  been  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations  ?     Oppressions  have  disappeared, 
thrones   have  tottered,  ignorance  and  superstition  have  fled 
because  of  it.      Catching  instruction  and  inspiration  from  it, 
the  masses  have  been  filled  with  a  sense  of  their  manhood, 
and  have  risen  into  a  perception  of  their  rights.     Star-cham- 
ber and  stamp-act  have  given  way.     Ship-money  and  tea-tax 
have  been  resisted.      Freedom  has  been  achieved.      Schools 
have  multiplied.     Laws   have    softened.      All  refining  and 
elevating  agencies  have  been  increased  ;  and  the  varied  ele- 
ments —  moral,  intellectual,  spiritual,  that,   if  the   promises 
of  God  and  the  visions  of  prophets  are  ever  to  be   realized, 
are  at  some  time  to  culminate  in   the  millennium  on  earth, 
and  more  perfectly  in  the  life  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven, 
have  more  and  more  borne  sway. 

And  all  this,  let  it  bo  observed,  on  account  of  the  inherent 
and  quickening  power  of  the  Bible,  though  so  many  of  its 
best  and  highest  meanings  have  been  veiled  and  perverted 
by  such  gross  misunderstandings,  and  though  there  never 
have  been  lacking  those  who  have  used  it  to  bolster  wrong, 
to  put  the  brakes  on  the  wheels  of  progress,  to  gag  the 
complaints  of  the  trampled,  and  to  throw  all  the  weight 
of  its  authority  against  the  advance  of  science  and  every  at- 
tempt at  reform.  What  would  it  not  have  done  had  its 
spirit  always  been  rightly  caught,  and  had  it  been  used  only 
for  the  ends  that  God  approves  I 

And  what  is  thus  to  be  said  as  to  nations  is  to  be  said 
also,  with  equal  truth,  of  individuals  ;  —  is  true  of  nations 
only  because  antecedently  true  of  individuals.  IIow  does 
society  improve  except  as  the  men  and  women  composing 
it  are  first  affected  and  improved  ?  Far  too  easy,  it  must 
be  conceded,  it  is  to  find  those  who  profess  to  believe  the 
Bible,  and  who  read  it  more  or  less,  whose  lives  give  little 


166  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

evidence  of  its  elevating- or  sanctifying  power.  But  admit- 
ting all  that  must  be  admitted  on  account  of  such,  is  it  not 
true,  the  world  over,  that,  other  thing's  being  equal,  those 
most  familiar  with  the  Bible  and  most  under  its  legitimate 
influence,  are  of  all  people  the  best  and  happiest  —  most 
elevated  in  their  tastes,  broadest  and  tenderest  in  their  sym- 
pathies, stanchest  in  their  virtue,  richest  in  their  experi- 
ence ?  Speaking  of  the  rule,  is  it  not  true  that  as  a  man  or 
woman  renounces  or  neglects  the  Bible,  life  is  yielded  to 
material  or  earthly  uses,  —  that  the  light  of  God's  face  and 
of  the  heavenly  inheritance  fades  out  of  it,  — that  there  is 
a  deadening  of  spiritual  consciousness  and  sensibility,  — 
that  the  eye  loses  its  upward  look,  and  character  its  divine 
flavor  ?  Who  will  answer,  Nay,  to  these  questions  ?  Centu- 
ries ago,  the  Psalmist  said,  "  Wherevv'ithal  shall  a  young 
man  cleanse  his  way  ?  By  taking  heed  thereto  according 
to  thy  Word.  .  .  .  I  will  never  forget  Thy  precepts:  for  with 
them  Thou  hast  quickened  me  "  (Psa.  cxix.  9,  93).  And 
what  he  said,  having  only  a  portion  of  what  we  have  as  the 
Old  Scriptures,  we  maj'-  for  more  emphatically  say,  having 
what  now  constitutes  the  Bible,  witli  all  the  treasures  of  the 
New  added  to  the  Old.  There  is  no  moral  counsellor,  or 
guide,  like  it ;  and  outside  its  pages,  there  is  nothing  that 
can  quicken  souls.  Most  persons  are  familiar  with  the  story 
of  the  deist,  who,  after  publicly  denouncing  the  Bible  as 
undeserving  of  confidence,  was  found  at  home  instructing  his 
child  from  the  New  Testament,  and  who,  on  being  arraigned 
for  his  inconsistency,  frankly  confessed  that,  desiring  to 
teach  the  child  morality,  he  knew  not  where  else  to  find 
such  morality  as  in  the  Bible.  I  knew  a  similar  case.  A 
relative  of  mine  —  an  estimable  man,  but  an  unbeliever  in 
Christianity,  and  at  one  time  the  blankest  atheist  I  ever 
met,  had  a  son  about  to  go  from  home,  to  be  thrown  into 
numerous  temptations.  He  naturally  desired  to  shield  and 
strengthen  him  to  the  utmost :  and  what  did  he  do  ?  Un- 
believer though  he  was,  he  put  a  Bible  into  the  young  man's 
trunk,  having  first  written  in  it  to  this  effect,  —  "I  will  not 
now  debate  who  wrote  this  book.  It  is  certainly  full  of 
valuable  instruction,  whatever  the  source  from  which  it 
came.     Read  it,  my  son,  and  try  to  follow  its  counsels.     If 


THE  BIBLE.  16T 

you  do,  whatever  your  temptations,  I  am  sure  you  will  be  a 
virtuous  man."  What  testimony  this  to  the  important  re- 
lations which  the  Bible  holds  to  our  moral  welfare  I  Grant 
all  that  wjidelihj  alleges  against  it,  and  it  still  remains  the  one 
book  essential  beyond  all  others  to  our  moral  culture  and  spirit- 
ual satisfaction.  Search  the  world,  and  we  find  that  the 
noblest  character  flowers  only  out  of  roots  which  the  Bible 
has  watered  ;  and  when  sorrow  comes,  when  loved  ones  die, 
when  suffering  is  to  be  endured,  when  death  is  to  be  met, 
how  dark  are  the  g-looms  which  fall  about  the  heart  which 
the  Bible  has  not  illumined  !  how  full  of  anguish  the  grief 
which  knows  nothing  of  the  Bible's  consolations  I  how 
uneasy  the  bed  where  the  Bible  ministers  not  to  the  soul  1 
how  terrible  the  grave  into  which  the  Bible  sheds  no  sun- 
shine, and  across  which  beams  none  of  the  radiance  of  the 
Immortality  it  discloses  ! 

These  things,  then,  being  so,  who  that  has  any  regard  to 
his  own  interests,  or  the  interests  of  his  Church,  or  the 
wider  interests  of  the  country  and  the  world,  can  be  indif- 
ferent to  them?  This,  unfortunately,  is  not  a  Bible-reading 
age.  There  is  so  much  other  reading,  and  so  many  other 
calls  are  making  their  exactions  on  thought  and  time,  and, 
on  the  part  of  many,  there  is  such  an  indifference  to  the 
Bible,  or  such  a  self-complacency  inducing  the  feeling  that 
they  have  no  need  of  it,  that  the  Book  is  probab'y  now  more 
neglected  than  at  any  period  since  it  was  put  by  Protestant- 
ism and  the  printing-press  into  the  people's  hands.  Not 
that  there  is  any  considerable  abatement  of  resiaect  for  it, 
or  of  faith  in  it.  Despite  all  that  infidelity  and  a  pseudo- 
science  are,  openly  or  covertly,  doing  to  dethrone  it,  per- 
haps it  was  never  more  generally  regarded  as  a  Book  some- 
how from  God  than  to-day.  Comparatively  few  intelligent 
families  are  willingly  destitute  of  it  in  some  form,  while 
numberless  costly  illustrated  and  gilded  editions,  specimens 
of  which  meet  us  in  parlors  and  elsewhere,  indicate  the 
reverence  in  which  it  is  still  popularly  held.  But  it  is  not 
correspondingly  read  —  except  in  sickness  and  sorrow  and 
peculiar  crises  of  experience.  What  is  the  result  ?  From 
a  neglect  of  the  Bible,  come  the  materialism,  the  mammon- 
worship,  the  spiritual  emptiness  and  ignoblcnoss,  the  prac- 


1G8  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

tical  infidelity,  so  much  of  which  we  see.  From  a  neglect 
of  the  Bible,  come  to  a  large  extent  the  prevalent  unsettled- 
ness  and  vacillation  of  opinion,  the  readiness  to  be  capti- 
vated by  novelties,  and  the  extravagances  and  religious 
crudities  of  all  sorts  which  so  easily  find  disciples.  Espe- 
cially is  it  on  account  of  a  neglect  of  the  Bible  in  homes  and 
by  firesides  that  so  many  youth  are  growing  up  with  so  lit- 
tle religious  knowledge  and  so  little  preparation  for  life,  to 
be  by  and  by  turned  adrift,  with  no  fixed  ideas,  "tossed  to 
and  fro,  and  carried  about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine." 
How  many  people,  of  any  religious  convictions,  ai'e  in  the 
habit  of  carefully  studying,  or  even  of  attentively  reading, 
the  Bible  ?  How  many  do  not  put  it  aside  for  other  reading 
—  perhaps  even  on  the  Sabbath,  for  novels,  flashy  maga- 
zines, or  Sunday  papers  ?  How  many  young  men,  or  young 
women,  make  it  a  point  to  read  it  every  day,  or  every  week  ? 
How  many  parents  do  this,  with  their  families,  or  by  them- 
selves ?  How  many  children  are  carefully  and  reverently 
trained  to  the  practice  ? 

No  Christians  can  afford  to  be  unconcerned  in  respect  to 
this  subject.  But  it  has  special  claims  upon  us.  The  Bible 
is  a  Universalist  book.  Not  only,  therefore,  has  it  more 
spiritual  wealth  and  nutriment  for  us  than  for  our  friends 
wlio  fail  to  see  its  real  meaning,  but  it  is  our  fortress  and 
strength,  upon  an  intelligent  use  of  which  the  future  of  our 
Faith  and  our  Church  depends.  True,  the  result  we  affirm 
is  reached  through  a  variety  of  paths,  and,  the  moral  consti- 
tution of  the  universe  being  granted,  is  hinted,. or  necessi- 
tated, all  the  facts  being  duly  considered,  start  where  wo 
will.  Common  sense  suggests  it.  Nature  in  its  pervading 
spirit  prophesies  it.  Every  human  affection  yearns  for  it. 
Every  human  sympathy  protests  against  anything  less  broad, 
or  inclusive.  Reason,  conscience,  every  moral  instinct,  un- 
perverted,  points  towards  it.  Every  perfection  of  God,  His 
existence  being  admitted,  —  every  spiritual  faculty  or  possi- 
bility of  man,  —  every  principle  in  morals,  —  every  axiom 
in  science  is  an  argument  for  it.  As  the  consequence,  faitli 
in  this  result  is  variously  cherished —  with  Christ  and  with- 
out him  ;  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible  and  independent  of 
it;  in  connection  with  'evangelical'  opinions  and  as  a  part  of 


THE  BIBLE.  169 

our  harmonious  theology ;  aa  an  Instinct,  as  a  Sentiment,  as 
a  Philosophy,  as  a  Religion.  But  while  this  is  true,  and 
tiiough  every  tendency  of  religious  thought  and  opinion  is 
in  our  direction,  we  have  no  hold  upon  the  Future  as  a 
Church  except  by  the  force  of  the  Bible,  giving  us  Univer- 
salism  as  a  religion.  Whatever  intimations,  or  confirma- 
tions, of  it  from  other  sources  there  maj'-  be,  it  is  by  the 
testimony  of  the  Bible  alone  that  we,  or  anybody,  can  be 
absolutely  certified  that  Universalism  is  true.  Only  as  a 
Bible  doctrine,  buttressed  everywhere  by  a  "  thus-saith-the- 
Lord,"  can  it  be  most  unanswerably  established.  And  ex- 
cept as  its  believers  constantly  make  the  Bible  their  study 
and  reliance,  they  can  never  to  best  effect  be  prepared  to 
give  an  answer  to  every  one  that  asketh,  nor  can  our  Zion 
be  most  vital  in  itself,  or  most  thoroughly  equipped  for  its 
most  desirable  triumphs.  The  one  great  obstacle  in  our 
way  is  the  mistaken  impression  that  the  Bible  is  against  us. 
Correct  this  idea,  and  with  everything  else  already  in  our 
favor,  the  field,  of  course,  is  ours.  To  secure  this  correc- 
tion, by  the  ability  to  expound  the  Scriptures  which  thoi'- 
ough  personal  study  and  familiarity  with  them  alone  can 
give,  should,  therefore,  be  henceforth  one  of  the  leading 
purposes  of  all  who  call  themselves  Uuiversalists.  Holiness 
of  life,  attesting  the  sanctifying  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in 'our  hearts,  should  be  our  first  aim.  Then,  for  our  own 
sake  and  for  the  sake  of  our  truth  and  our  Church,  we 
should  make  the  Bible  the  fountain  from  which  we  inces- 
santly draw,  that  we  may  get  the  personal  instruction  and 
help  which  it  is  its  exclusive  province  to  impart,  and  that 
we  may  thus  be  prepared  to  edify  and  convince  others, 
meeting  their  Bible  arguments  with  better  and  stronger 
Bible  arguments,  and  showing  that  not  only  do  all  other 
arguments  array  themselves  on  the  side  of  Universalism, 
but  that  the  Bible,  from  first  to  last,  chants  the  grand 
anthem  of  a  complete  redemption. 

The  time  was  when  Uuiversalists  were  pre-eminently  a 
Bible  reading  people,  having  a  greater  familiarity  with  the 
whole  Bible  than  any  others,  and  proportionally  better  able 
to  do  valiant  Bible  battle  for  their  faith.  Then  the  most 
unlettered  Universalist  was  more  entirely  at  home  in  the 


170  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

closest  hand-to-hand  Bible  argument  than  the  rabbis  and 
doctors  of  the  dominant  sects.  Not  the  elders  simply,  but 
the  young  men  and  young  women  —  boys  and  girls,  some- 
times—  could  vindicate  the  harmony  of  the  Scriptures,  by 
turning  to  the  context  of  passages  cited  against  us,  and 
satisfactoi'ily  explaining  their  meaning.  Our  stripling 
Davids  often  put  Goliaths  to  flight.  But,  though  there  is 
probably  as  much  reading  of  the  Bible  among  us  as  among 
the  average  of  other  churches,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this 
pre-eminence  is  no  longer  ours,  and  that  our  young  people 
particularly  are  coming  forward  without  that  acquaintance 
with  the  Bible  needful  to  their  own  most  intelligent  faith, 
or  to  the  satisfactory  defence  of  their  opinions.  Young 
people  not  unfrequently  ask  me.  How  are  such  and  such 
passages  to  be  understood,  and  what  texts  can  I  quote 
against  the  other  side? — to  whom  my  invariable  reply, 
after  such  information  as  the  moment  allows,  is,  Study  the 
Bible  for  yourself,  and  see.  There  is  reason,  doubtless,  for 
the  change  thus  noted.  Those  former  days  were  days 
when  every  Uuiversalist  was  a  sort  of  Ishmael,  and  was 
expected  to  go  armed,  ready  at  any  moment  to  receive  and 
repel  an  assault.  The  policy  of  the  opposition  has  now 
changed.  Universalism,  for  the  most  part,  is  ignored.  A 
partial  truce,  if  not  entire  peace,  has  been  proclaimed. 
There  is,  naturally,  among  us  no  such  eagerness  to  prepare 
for  light.  The  arts  of  war  decline  in  time  of  peace  - —  or 
prolonged  truce.  Muskets  become  rusty,  and  swords  lie 
unused  in  their  sheaths.  And  it  being  forgotten  that  the 
Bible  is  not  only  the  sword  of  the  spirit,  but  the  bread  of 
life,  and  that,  however  one  may  cease  to  use  it  for  fight,  he 
must  still  use  it  for  spiritual  sustenance  and  strength,  it 
has  fallen  into  the  comparative  neglect  spoken  of.  But  we 
are  putting  our  personal  spiritual  life  and  all  that  our 
Church  stands  for  every  day  in  peril  so  long  as  this  neglect 
continues,  and  the  time  has  fully  come  for  a  New  Depart- 
ure, committing  us  to  the  habits  of  Bible  study  herein 
urged  —  not  for  purposes  of  controversy,  but  for  the  far 
higher  purposes  of  Christian  culture  and  Christian  effective- 
ness. Do  what  else  we  may,  we  can  build  on  the  solid 
rock,  and  accomplish  the  best  work  either  for  ourselves,  or 


THE    BIBLE.  171 

for  Christ  and  his  Church  in  the  awakening  and  salvation  of 
souls,  only  as  we  build  on  the  Bible,  making  it  the  ground 
of  our  assurance  and  the  means  of  our  power. 

And  then,  think  of  our  children.  Who  of  us  does  not 
desire  that  they  shall  grow  up,  rooted  in  right  principles, 
and  supplied  with  all  the  materials  for  the  noblest  and  hap- 
piest living  ?  But  how  is  this  to  be,  except  as  they  are 
educated  to  love,  and  read  and  understand  the  Bible  ? 
Moreover,  they  are  our  recruits  for  the  army  of  Christ ; 
those  who  are  to  bear  aloft  the  banner  of  our  faith,  and 
take  up  and  carry  forward  whatever  good  work  we  begin  — 
if  our  Church  is  to  live  and  grow.  But  how  are  they  to  be 
and  do  Avhat  is  thus  implied,  if  they  are  not  duly  trained  in 
a  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  accustomed  to  draw  nutri- 
ment and  inspiration  from  it  ?  If  we  neglect  them  in  this 
respect,  shall  we  be  surprised  if  they  fall  away  from  us 
into  the  current  of  popular  sects  and  traditional  theologies, 
or,  far  worse,  miss  their  way  in  life,  and  fall  into  moral 
waste  ?  "If  Universalists  sleep,"  once  said  good  old 
'  Father '  Balfour,  "  and  allow  their  children  to  sleep  with 
them,  it  is  easy  to  see  what  work  is  preparing  for  the  next 
generation.  They  ought  to  see  to  it  that  Universalists  in 
name  be  also  Christians,  able  and  willing  to  defend  from 
the  Scriptures  what  they  believe.  There  can  be  no  safety 
from  controversy  until  Christians  are  correctly  and  gen- 
erally instructed  in  the  Bible,  for  so  long  as  ignorance  of  it 
prevails,  there  will  always  be  those  who  will  impose  on  the 
ignorant"  —  and,  he  might  have  added,  lead  astray  the 
unwary.  There  is  a  meaning  in  these  words  of  the  dear 
old  patriarch,  to  which  no  Universalist  should  fail  to  give 
heed. 

The  Bible,  indeed,  is  to  be  studied  by  us,  or  taught  to 
others,  in  no  narrow,  dogmatic,  or  merely  sectarian  spirit. 
We  want  no  idolatry  of  the  Bible.  We  are  not  to  be  big- 
ots, —  though  better  bigotry  than  latitudinarianism  and  in- 
diifcrence  ;  nor  are  we  to  do  anything  to  make  others  big- 
ots. We  are  not  to  look  on  the  Bible  as  God's  only  revela- 
tion, —  only  as  His  most  distinct  and  authoritative  revela- 
tion. We  are  never  to  go  to  it,  to  put  a  meaning  into  it,  — 
only  to  get  its  meaning  out  of  it.     Especially  ai-e  we  never 


172  OUR  NEW    DliPARTUEE. 

to  forget  that  the  Bible  is  not  to  be  fouud  in  texts,  sewed 
together  like  patchwork,  or  repeated  as  a  parrot  jingles 
what  it  has  learned.  The  meaning  of  the  Bible  is  the  Bible, 
—  not  its  mere  letter.  And  one  who  constantly  studies  to 
reach  the  spirit  of  the  Bible  pays  it  far  higher  reverence 
than  one  who  thinks  only  of  its  language,  and  deals  with 
its  words  as  a  child  deals  with  its  bits  of  calico,  or  painted 
glass  :  — just  as  he  is  the  Bible  preacher  who  is  most  anx- 
ious, not  to  quote  texts,  or  to  say  what  he  says  in  Bible 
terms,  but  to  unfold  Bible  thought  and  preach  Bible  truth. 

There  are  those  who  would  have  us  believe  that  the  Bible 
is  to  pass  away  from  the  authoritative  place  it  has  held,  — 
as  there  are  those  who  are  fearing  that  it  will  suiTer  harm 
from  the  attacks  made  upon  it.  Pass  away  !  Sufier  harm  ! 
As  well  might  one  talk  of  the  North  Star's  passing  away 
from  its  place  in  the  heavens,  or  of  its  suffering  harm  be- 
cause a  telescope  is  occasionally  levelled  at  it.  The  Bible 
is  a  necessity  and  a  fact,  buttressed  as  well  as  demanded 
by  every  moral  and  religious  need  of  the  human  soul.  It 
is  no  gourd  that  grew  up  yesterday.  It  is  the  legacy  of 
ages.  It  comes  down  to  us,  portions  of  it,  from  periods 
more  remote  than  are  reported  by  any  other  written  page. 
It  has  seen  empires  rise  and  fall,  and  become  forgotten.  It 
has  seen  splendid  cities  built,  whose  very  places  have  been 
lost  to  human  recognition.  Nor  has  it  thus  survived  be- 
cause it  has  had  no  enmit}'^,  or  assaults,  to  encounter.  It 
has  had  battles  to  fight  that  ivere  battles  —  battles  with 
learning,  and  superstition,  and  cunning,  and  ignorance  ; 
battles,  especially,  as  one  has  well  expressed  it,  "  Avith  men 
of  culture,  shrewdness,  and  force,  compared  with  whom 
most  of  those  who  now  assail  it  are,  in  every  respect  save 
a  reckless  daring,  mere  Lilliputians  in  presence  of  the  men 
of  Brobdignag."  The  Alleghanies  will  not  be  moved  at 
present,  however  children  may  pelt  them  with  pebbles,  or 
discharge  their  mimic  cannon  against  them,  nor  even 
though  men  should  be  found  to  vote  them  only  so  much 
vapor,  or  to  pass  wise  resolves  that  they  are  nothing  but 
sand.  There  they  are  ;  —  and  there,  doubtless,  however  a 
stone  may  be  occasionally  hacked  from  their  sides,  they 
will  stand,  to  invite  generations  yet  unborn  to  the  refresh- 


THE  BIBLE.  173 

ment  of  their  breezes,  and  to  the  sublime  beauty  of  the 
scenery  they  present,  and  to  enrich  those  who  mine  them 
with  the  inexhaustible  stores  of  wealth  God  has  provided 
in  them.  And  so  with  the  Bible.  Here  and  there,  there 
may  be  those  captivated  by  a  pretentious  philosophy,  or 
led  away  by  doubt  and  a  presumptuous  egoism,  or  jumping 
in  the  name  of  science  to  unwarranted  conclusions,  who 
may  renounce  their  faith  in  it  ;  and  in  the  progress  of  crit- 
icism, here  and  there  an  interpolation  may  be  discovered, 
and  an  excrescence  bo  cut  off.  But  so  long  as  it  can  point 
to  the  civilization  it  has  reared  and  vitalized,  —  so  long  as 
it  has  an  advocate  aiid  witness  in  every  necessity  of  our 
nature,  pleading  for  its  satisfactions,  —  so  long  as  it  fills 
the  place  in  its  relations  to  the  life  of  souls  and  the  prog- 
ress of  the  world  which  it  always  has  filled,  and  which  it 
alone  can  fill,  the  Bible  will  stand  —  the  record  of  God's 
living  Word  ;  the  store-house  of  the  unspeakable  riches  of 
His  grace  and  truth  ;  the  lens  through  which  light  from 
Heaven  shines  upon  us  ;  the  perpetual  source  of  inspira- 
tion and  redeeming  power. 

The  dear  old  Bible  !  so  consecrated  as  the  gift  of  God, 
and  as  the  memorial  of  prophets  and  apostles  through 
whom  He  has  spoken,  —  so  hallowed  by  all  the  associations 
and  uses  of  ages,  —  so  fragrant  with  the  aroma  of  the 
heroic  and  saintly  lives  it  has  formed  and  fed, — so 
anointed  with  the  tears  of  sufferers  it  has  sustained  and 
soothed,  and  with  the  blood  of  martyrs  who  have  folded  it 
to  their  bosoms,  and  gone  to  the  rack  and  the  stake  in  its 
behalf,  — the  Book  out  of  which  have  come  the  doctrine  of 
human  rights  and  every  principle  of  free  government,  — 
from  which  Sorrow  has  drank,  and  been  comforted,  —  into 
which  Bereavement  has  looked,  and  seen  the  light  that 
never  grows  dim,  and  read  the  promise  of  re-union, — to 
which  Sin  has  come,  and  been  cleansed, — against  which 
the  tempted  have  leaned,  and  found  strength,  and  clasping 
which  the  dying  have  gone  down  into  the  dark  valley, 
walking  in  the  radiance  of  an  Immortal  Life  !  —  oh,  fathers 
and  mothers,  —  oh,  young  men  and  maidens,  —  oh,  children, 
lambs  in  the  flock  of  the  Good  Shepherd  whose  Gospel  it 
brings  us,  shall  it  not  be  dear  to  us  ?     Will  we  not  carry  it 


174  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

closer  than  ever  before  to  our  hearts,  and,  feeling  the  life 
of  God  pulsating  through  it,  seek  to  take  into  our  inmost 
being  all  that  it  aims  to  communicate,  that  we  may  be  daily 
wiser  and  stronger  and  more  efficient  for  Christian  Work, 
as  well  as  richer  in  all  sweet  and  blessed  experience  ?  And 
will  we  not  thus,  one  and  all,  give  ourselves  to  the  New 
Departure  herein  pleaded  for,  that,  because  of  our  increased 
study  and  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  our  truth  may  shine  out 
more  and  more  as  indeed  the  very  doctrine  of  its  sacred 
pages,  and  our  Church,  irresistible  in  the  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit  thus  imparted,  and  vivified  by  an  increasing  spir- 
ituality and  consecration,  become  the  living  and  mighty 
instrument  of  God  for  the  work  He  has  appointed  it  ? 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PRAYER. 

It  was  remarked  in  our  second  chapter  that  we  are  not  a 
praying  people,  in  the  sense  in  which  this  phrase  is  com- 
monly employed  ;  that  is,  that  the  custom  of  family,  social, 
or  stated  private  prayer,  does  not,  to  any  considerable  ex- 
tent, prevail  among  us,  for  the  reason  that  there  is  no  pre- 
vailing sense  of  duty  in  these  directions.  I  should  be 
heartily  glad  if  the  facts  were  otherwise  ;  but  no  one  famil- 
iar with  our  history  will  venture  to  say  that  the  statement 
is  not  true.  Many  causes  have  contributed  to  make  it 
true,  most  of  which  have  been  sufficiently  set  forth  in  pre- 
ceding pages,  especially  in  our  Survey  of  the  Field,  and 
in  the  opening  of  the  chapter  on  Experimental  Religion. 
Prayer  is  one  of  the  conditions  and  helps  of  experimental 
religion.  It  naturally  shared,  therefore,  in  the  cheapening 
and  neglect  of  this  whole  side  of  the  Christian  life  conse- 
quent upon  the  disgust  of  our  fathers  at  the  pietistic  cant 
and  formalism  of  their  time,  and  their  inevitable  reaction 
from  them.  Nor  should  it  fail  to  be  noted  in  this  connec- 
tion that,  so  constantly  appealing  to  reason  as  for  so  many 
years  we  were,  in  our  battle  against  the  creeds,  the  habit 
into  which  we  thus  fell  of  rationalizing  and  philosophizing 
about  everything  led  to  a  much  too  exclusively  intellectual 
interpretation  of  religion,  and  particularly  to  speculations 
as  to  how  prayer  can  be  of  use,  not  at  all  conducive  to  a 
prayerful  frame  of  soul. 

The  result  was  precisely  what  might  have  been  expected. 
With  a  view  of  God  and  an  interpretation  of  Christianity 
which  should  have  so  stirred  our  hearts  as  to  make  us  the 
most  devout  and  prayerful  of  all  Christians,  we  became,  not 
undcvout  in  the  sense  of  indifference  to  religion,  as  religion 
was  understood,  but  of  all  Christians  probably,  among  those 
least  given  to  any  signs  of  religious  emotion,  and  least  ad- 

175 


176  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

dieted  to  the  habit  of  prayer.  Since  I  entered  the  ministry, 
it  was  not  usual  to  find  family  prayer  even  in  the  homes  of 
our  ministers,  while  a  family  altar  in  a  Universalist  lay- 
man's home  was  a  thing  almost  unheard  of.  The  home  in 
which  I  was  reared —  reared  most  tenderly  and  carefully — 
was  a  fair  type  of  the  best  Universalist  homes  in  this  re- 
spect, my  mother  being-  a  church-member,  of  devout  mind 
and  heart,  and  my  father,  though  not  a  church-member,  a 
most  upright  and  scrupulously  conscientious  man,  whom,  to 
the  last,  nothing  but  serious  illness  could  keep  from  his 
place  at  church,  so  long  as  he  could  get  there.  The  chil- 
dren were  trained  to  revere  and  read  the  Bible,  to  honor  the 
Sabbath,  to  love  and  practise  goodness,  and  to  '  go  to  meet- 
ing '  with  punctilious  regularity.  But  —  saving  that  we 
children,  in  our  earliest  days,  were  taught  to  '  say  our 
prayers  '  every  night  on  going  to  our  pillows  —  the  voice 
of  prayer  was  never  heard  in  our  home,  except  when  the 
minister  was  with  us  to  '  say  grace '  at  table.  And  this,  so 
far  as  my  knowledge  extended,  was  the  universal  rule 
among  us  as  a  people.  Things  have  changed  for  the  better 
with  us,  in  this  as  in  many  other  particulars,  during  these 
later  years.  We  have  grown  much  in  devoutness  of  spirit, 
and  in  those  habits  of  prayerfulness  ■  in  which  such  a  spirit 
most  naturally  expresses  itself.  We  are  yet,  however,  very 
flir  from  having  outgrown  these  early  traditions  and  reac- 
tionary ideas  —  so  that,  were  our  census  taken  to-day,  family 
altars  would  still  be  found  much  too  rare,  and  more  minis- 
ters' homes  even  would  probably  be  reported  as  without  a 
daily  religious  service  than  we  should  wish  to  see  frankly 
stated  to  the  world. 

Without  going  into  further  detail  to  show  why,  then,  I 
am  confident  no  serious-minded  person  will  dispute  the  as- 
sertion that,  among  our  most  pressing  needs,  is  the  need  of 
a  New  Departure  in  respect  to  Prayer  —  i.  e.  it  being  con- 
ceded that  prayer  is  ever  of  any  real  use.  This,  of  course, 
is  the  previous  question  ;  but  it  is  not  a  question  with  those 
who  will  read  what  is  here  written,  or  for  whom  it  is  spe- 
cially intended.  With  them,  the  propriety  of  prayer  —  at 
least  to  some  extent — is  not  open  to  debate.  They  would 
not  see  it  dispensed  with  in  our  Sabbath  services,  atr  the 


PRAYER.  177 

marriage  altar,  in  the  chamber  of  the  sick,  or  at  the  burial 
of  the  dead.  They  not  only  recognize,  but,  if  need  be, 
would  insist  upon,  its  fitness  on  these  and  various  special 
occasions.  The  basis  on  which  this  chapter  proceeds  is 
thus  fully  conceded.  For  if  we  should  pray  at  all,  it  can 
only  be  because  there  is,  for  some  reason,  use  and  power  in 
prayer.  What  mummery  all  praying  is  if  so  much  as  this 
be  not  true  !  And  if  there  be  use  or  power  in  praying  at 
all,  then  the  more  we  have  of  prayer  of  the  right  sort, 
under  suitable  circumstances,  the  larger  the  measure  of  use 
it  will  serve,  —  the  greater  the  degree  of  power  it  will 
impart.  Public  prayer  being  well,  then  why  not  private 
prayer  ?  If  praj^er  in  the  church,  why  not  in  the  home  ? 
if  prayer  in  the  pulpit,  why  not  in  the  closet  ?  if  prayer  on 
special  occasions,  why  not  as  the  habit  of  life?  By  so 
much  as  it  is  ever  of  service  anywhere,  in  any  way,  they 
clearly  are  losers  who  neglect  it.  And  if  we  have  not  here- 
tofore sufficiently  considered  these  things,  —  as  it  is  certain 
we  have  not,  and  therefore  have  neglected  to  avail  ourselves 
as  we  might  have  done  of  this  means  of  spiritual  culture 
and  spiritual  power,  what  can  be  plainer  than  that  we 
should  hereafter,  in  a  New  Departure,  more  largely  and 
wisely  employ  it  ? 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  question.  How  is  Prayer  of 
use  ?  is  the  perplexing  one  in  respect  to  this  subject.  Be- 
cause of  the  embarrassment  this  occasions  them,  some  who 
try  more  or  less  to  believe  in  prayer  —  speaking  now  with- 
out reference  to  church  lines  or  names  —  do  not  believe 
nearly  as  strongly  as  they  desire  ;  while  many  others  who 
would  be  glad  to  believe  do  not  believe  in  it  at  all.  The 
question,  it  is  true,  is  one  often  asked  in  a  trifling  or  sneer- 
ing -way  by  those  without  any  sincerity  or  earnestness  of 
thought  concerning  the  subject,  and  who  have  no  purpose 
except  to  throw  contempt  or  ridicule  upon  it.  So  asked, 
the  question  deserves  no  reply.  But  others  ask  it  with 
sincere  concern  ;  and  it  is  a  question  that  can  scarcely  fail 
to  urge  itself  at  some  time  upon  every  reflecting  mind,  how- 
ever devout.  God,  the  reasoning  is,  is  unchangeable  ;  the 
laws  of  nature  are  established  ;  and  neither  He,  in  His  feel- 
ings or  plans,  nor  nature  in  its  course,  is  to  be  afibcted  or 
12 


178  OUR  NEW  DEPxVRTURE. 

changed  by  any  pleadings  or  wishes  of  ours.  How,  then, 
can  prayer  find  any  actual  hearing,  or  avail  to  bring  us  any- 
thing different  from  what  we  should  have  or  experience 
without  it  ?  The  question  is  one  the  complete  answer  of 
which  involves  elements  necessarily  beyond  our  comprehen- 
sion. It  belongs,  moreover,  to  the  metaphysical  rather  than 
to  the  practical  side  of  the  subject,  and  so  does  not  fall 
properly  within  the  particular  design  of  these  pages.  And 
yet,  considering  the  peculiar  nature  and  importance  of  the 
point,  I  cannot  forbear  a  few  words  of  suggestion  concern- 
ing it. 

There  is  a  view  of  the  subject  which  seeks  to  avoid  the 
difficulty  this  question.  How  f  presents,  by  affecting  to 
aflSrm  the  use  of  prayer,  and  at  the  same  time  alleging  that 
it  avails  nothing  with  God,  —  only  does  us  good  on  the  same 
principle  that  religious  meditation  serves  to  strengthen, 
soothe  and  iiplift  us.  This  theory  has  found  some  advocates 
among  us.  But  it  seems  to  me  —  and  I  think  I  may  say,  to 
nearly  all  of  us  —  a  theory  most  unsatisfactory,  and  every 
way  open  to  objection.  No  really  devout  mind  can  fail  in- 
stinctively to  shrink  from  it,  and  protest  against  it.  Not 
only  does  it  deny  the  Psalmist's  statement  that  God  heareth 
prayer, — i.e.  hears  in  some  sympathizing  and  responsive 
sense,  —  and  equally  deny  Christ's  repeated  assui'ances  to 
the  same  efiect,  but  it  makes  prayer  a  travesty  of  devotion 
as  actually  as  though  there  were  no  God.  The  essence  of 
prayer,  as  prayer,  is  earnest  and  sincere  asking,  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  somehow  receiving.  But,  on  this  theory,  any 
such  asking  is  impossible.  This  theory  being  true,  one 
might  as  well  kneel  before  a  post  or  a  brick  Avail,  and  talk 
to  it,  expecting  it  to  bestow  something,  —  might  as  well 
addi-ess  himself  to  the  name  of  God,  believing  there  is  no 
such  Being,  —  as  to  call  on  God,  expecting  to  receive 
anything  from  Him;  Christ's  precious  words  of  promise, 
"Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find;  knock, 
and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you,"  convey  an  implication 
that  imposes  a  lie  upon  us  ;  and  every  time  God  is  ad- 
dressed in  the  attitude  and  words  of  prayer,  as  if  He 
heard  and  answered,  a  hollow  pretence  is  acted  that,  were 
it  not  so  impious,  would  justify  a  smile  because  it  is  so  ludi- 


PRAYER.  179 

crous.  It  is  as  if  a  child,  wishing  for  some  gift,  should 
solemnly  kneel  and  call  on  its  mother  to  give,  knowing  that 
she  is  a  thousand  miles  away,  and  can  neither  hear  nor  re- 
spond I  Or,  still  more  like  perhaps,  it  is  as  if  one,  desiring 
to  scale  a  mountain,  should  stand  in  a  basket,  trying  to  lift 
himself  by  going  through  the  motions  of  pulling  at  a  rope 
which  he  knows  does  not  exist,  but  which  he  plays  is  dan- 
gling from  the  sky  and  fastened  to  the  basket,  all  the  while 
invoking  the  aid  of  some  deaf  or  helpless  friend  !  One  at 
all  realizing  what  such  a  view  implies  would  find  any  heart 
or  earnestness  in  prayer  impossible,  or  if,  going  through  its 
form  in  a  momentary  glow  of  devotional  feeling,  he  should 
be  suddenly  struck  with  a  becoming  sense  of  what  he  was 
doing,  would  inevitably  collapse  in  laughter,  or  sink  to  the 
ground,  unspeakably  shocked  at  the  mockery  in  which  he 
was  engaged.  "He  that  cometh  to  God,"  it  is  written, 
"  must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  a  rewarder  of 
them  that  diligently  seek  Him  ;  "  and  there  is,  and  can  be, 
no  pra(/er  except  as,  in  accordance  with  this,  the  soul  call- 
ing on  God  feels  that  His  ear  is  open  to  it,  and  that,  in 
some  way,  its  aspirations  and  requests  will  have  response 
from  Him. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  say  to  this  question,  How  ?  In 
effect,  as  the  subject  presents  itself  to  my  thought,  some- 
thing like  this  :  that  neither  God's  unchangeability,  nor  the 
established  course  of  nature,  renders  it  either  impossible, 
unreasonable,  or  improbable  that  blessings  are  given  in 
answer  to  prayer  which  are  not  to  be  had  without  it.  There 
are  blessings  which  come  to  us  without  any  use  of  means 
on  our  part ;  but  there  are  others  —  among  them,  most  of 
those  that  are  of  special  importance  —  which  we  can  have 
only  through  our  own  action.  This  is  undeniably  a  part  of 
the  plan  on  which  the  world  is  governed,  as  is  seen  in  the 
relation  of  sowing  to  reaping  in  the  natural  Avorld,  and  in 
the  equally  apparent  relation  of  effects  to  causes  every- 
where. Does  our  sowing  of  seed,  or  our  active  efforts 
towards  any  desirable  end,  involve  or  imply  any  change  of 
God's  plans  or  feelings,  or  any  interruption  of  the  order  of 
nature,  as  a  condition  of  the  result  we  seek  ?  Why,  then, 
is  any  such  change  or  interruption  necessarily  implied  in  the 


180  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

supposition  of  answers  to  prayer  ?  Rather,  considering-  who 
and  what  God  is  in  His  rehitions  to  us,  if  there  really  be  a 
God,  is  not  every  presumption  in  favor  of  the  supposition 
that  in  this  grand  system  of  means,  on  our  use  of  which 
life's  best  thing's  depend,  prayer  is  one  ?  Spiritual  blessings 
are  the  most  legitimate  objects  of  prayer  ;  and  it  seems  to 
me  easy  to  see  the  connection  between  them  and  prayer  as 
the  means  of  obtaining  them.  And,  though  it  may  not  be 
so  easy  to  detect  the  precise  connection  between  our  petitions 
and  what  we  pray  for  when  we  supplicate  for  the  sick,  the  sin- 
ful, or  the  absent,  or  ask  for  health,  or  pray  to  be  shielded  from 
danger,  or  to  be  prospered  in  our  undertakings,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  that  God  may  have  so  arranged  the  possible 
relations  and  dependence  of  events  as  to  be  able  to  respond 
to  such  prayers  when  earnestly  and  believingly  oifered,  with- 
out any  change  of  feeling,  or  any  violence  to  nature,  or 
His  own  wise  ways. 

This  subject,  unfortunately,  is  one  concerning  which 
thought  is  quite  too  much  merely  superficial  and  mechanical, 
in  its  conception  of  God  and  His  methods.  It  is  important 
that  we  should  duly  keep  in  mind  the  fact  of  man's  freedom  ; 
but  it  is  even  more  important  that  we  should  take  care  not 
to  overlook  or  compromise  the  grander  fact  of  God's  free- 
dom. Because  this  fact  fails  to  be  properly  taken  into 
account,  there  is,  in  the  habits  of  thinking  quite  too  widely 
prevalent  touching  this  whole  matter  of  God's  connection 
with  us,  not  a  little  virtual  Atheism.  We  hear  a  great  deal 
about  the  laws  of  nature,  and  the  established  chain  of  causa- 
tion, and  the  inviolable  order  of  things  ;  and  there  are  those 
who  never  weary  in  insisting  that  it  is  not  at  all  probable 
that  this  machine-like  fixity  and  succession  of  events  ever 
has  been,  or  ever  will  be,  intermitted  in  answer  to  anybody's 
prayers.  We  have  heard  of  the  proposed  '  test  of  prayer.' 
We  have  become  familiar  with  the  loud  and  confident 
loquacity  of  what  calls  itself  '  Science,'  about  the  super- 
stition and  folly  of  those  who  still  cherish  any  faith  in 
prayer,  or  its  possible  efficacy.  And  let  it  be  confessed 
that,  amidst  much  that  offends  and  shocks,  some  things  are 
said  by  those  who  indulge  in  these  diversions  which  are 
worth  considering.     But,  whatever  the  terms  employed,  — 


PRAYER.  181 

whatever  the  point  from  which  the  debate  or  denunciation 
proceeds,  what  have  we,  when  we  get  at  the  bottom  of  all 
these  discussions  and  tirades,  but  this  as  their  final  substance 
and  real  meaning — that  God,  if  there  bo  a  God,  is,  practically, 
the  slave  of  His  own  aj^pointmeuts,  or  of  co-ordinate 
'  natural  laws,'  because  they  everywhere  master,  restrain, 
or  hedge  Him  in  ?  If  the  despotically  naturalistic,  or 
'  scientific '  view  of  the  universe  so  pretentiously  urged 
recognizes  God  at  all  as  an  actual  element  in  human  life, 
it  is  only  remotely  and  indirectly.  In  effect.  He  is  utterly 
excluded.  No  place  is  left  for  His  vital  presence,  for  the 
exercise  of  His  instant  and  solicitous  care,  or  for  the  play 
of  His  immediate  mercy  in  our  concerns.  And  Avhat  is  this 
but  a  modified  Atheism  ?  Atheism  only  tells  us  that  there 
is  no  God  ;  and  why  might  we  not  just  as  Avell  go  to  this 
extent,  so  far  as  all  our  present  or  personal  interests  are 
involved,  as  to  believe  that  if  there  be  a  God,  He  is  nothing, 
immediately,  to  us,  and  has,  directly,  no  hand  in  our  affairs  ? 

I  will  not  here  assume  to  speak  for  others  ;  but  for  myself, 
I  am  free  to  say,  my  intellect  and  my  affections  alike  revolt 
from  such  an  approach  to  Atheism,  in  such  an  expulsion  of 
God  from  our  daily  life  and  interests.  I  believe  in  Law,  and 
see  abundant  occasion  to  thank  God  that  what  we  call  His  laws 
are  so  uniform  and  reliable  in  their  operations.  But  I  believe 
in  no  Law  paramount  to  Almighty  God.  Either  He  is  above 
all  Law,  except  the  law  of  honor  and  right,  or  He  is  not 
God.  I  do  not  believe  in  a  God  whose  hands  are  hampered, 
whose  volitions  are  hindered,  whose  living  presence  is  caged 
behind  any  Law,  or  any  set  of  Laws,  existing  by  His  ordi- 
nance, or  otherwise.  The  God  to  whom  my  rqiason  conducts 
me,  that  my  heart  yearns  for,  and  that  Nature  and  Providence 
and  the  Bible,  as  I  interpret  them,  give  me,  is  —  not  a  cold 
and  distant  Sovereign,  who  deals  with  me  at  second-hand, 
through  the  unsympathizing  mechanism  which  He  has  set 
to  running  and  then  retired,  but  a  Father,  numbering  the 
very  hairs  of  mj^  head  ;  Avithout  whose  notice  not  even  a 
sparrow  falls,  and  who,  near  me  always,  is  constantly  and 
tenderly  immanent  in  my  life  and  in  all  lives  for  good. 

Laws,   do  you  say  ?     What,  finally,  are  these  '  laws  of 
nature  '  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  and  of  which  we  should 


182  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

never  fail  to  make  due  account,  —  forces  and  processes 
independent  of  God,  or  the  methods  in  which  He  works  ? 
"  rigid  statutes,  or  flexible  expressions  of  the  Infinite  Will  "  ? 
As  it  has  been  well  asked,  "  What  informs  and  controls 
them?  Is  it  the  mechanical  obedience  of  springs  and 
wheels  and  repulsive  and  attractive  forces  ?  or  is  it  the 
instant  and  universal  presence  of  Divine  Intelligence,  Love, 
and  Power?  "  If  the  latter,  then  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
a  mechanical,  general  Providence,  with  a  Deity  withdrawn 
from  Life,  content  to  look  on  with  folded  hands  and  see  the 
great  clock-work  go  on  as  He  has  arranged  and  wound  it 
up.  All  Providence  is  special^  and  God's  relations  to  the 
world  aud  to  us  are  direct  and  immediate.  He  is  "instant 
as  well  as  constant  "  everywhere.  The  universe  is  vital 
with  His  presence.  Planets  move  and  systems  revolve  in  the 
grasp  of  His  hand,  and  the  events  of  history  and  the 
experiences  of  life  transpire  in  the  sight  of  His  eye,  to  be 
overruled  and  used  as  He  sees  best.  Laws,  in  the  sense  of 
fixed  methods,  there  are  ;  order  there  is  ;  but  it  is  '  law  and 
order '  that,  instead  of  excluding  Him,  only  shows  us  what 
He  is  doing  —  where  and  how  His  ajl-pervading  and  marvel- 
lous energy  ordinarily  expends  itself,  admitting  any  other 
manifestation  of  His  will  and  work  whenever,  for  any  reason, 
it  may  seem  to  Him  good. 

These  observations  are  made  with  no  idea  of  offering  them 
as  a  thorough  discussion  of  the  question  they  touch,  but 
simply  by  way  of  suggestion  —  to  hint  that  a  philosophical, 
and  even  '  scientific,'  explanation  marj  be  given  of  the  use 
of  prayer,  implying  no  change  in  God,  or  violent  iuterrui?- 
tion  of  the  course  of  nature.  For  if  there  be  any  force  in 
these  considerations  —  and  how  can  there  be  a  free,  self- 
acting,  immanent  God  unless  there  is  force  in  them  ?  —  God, 
they  show  us,  if  He  sees  reason  to  do  so,  can  "give  direct 
answer  to  our  prayer  —  that  answer  being,  not  a  violation 
of,  or  a  departure  from,  the  laws  of  nature,  —  only  one  of 
the  legitimate  results  and  manifestations  of  these  laws." 

After  all,  however,  our  faith  in  prayer  must  rest,  finally, 
on  other  than  any  grounds  of  mere  reasoning,  or  it  will  not 
be  very  strong.     Philosophize   as  we  may,  there   are   still 


PRAYER.  183 

questions  concerning  it  —  as  concerning  numerous  otber 
facts,  not  only  in  religion,  but  in  science  and  the  phenomena 
of  nature  —  easy  to  ask,  but  impossible  of  human  answer. 
These  other  facts,  however,  are  none  the  less  accepted,  though 
we  cannot  answer  all  possible  questions  concerning  them. 
Who  the  less  believes  in  God  because,  in  so  many  respects, 
a  curjous  and  speculative  reason  searches  in  vain  to  find 
Him  out  ?  Or  who  the  less  concedes  the  reality  of  the  rain- 
bow, or  the  gorgeous  scintillations  of  the  aurora  borealis, 
because  every  link  in  the  chain  of  their  causation  cannot  be 
mathematically  described  ?  It  is,  therefore,  nothing  to  the 
discredit  of  prayer  though  we  have  to  grant,  as  we  must 
after  all  our  theorizing  about  it,  that  its  innermost  philosophy 
belongs  to  the  domain  of  infinite  and  not  of  finite  thought, 
and  that  our  confidence  in  its  efficacy  must  rest,  at  last,  on 
something  firmer  than  any  mere  argument  concerning  it,  and 
deeper  than  any  ability  of  ours  to  explain  it.  In  granting 
this,  we  simply  say  that  prayer  belongs  in  the  same  category 
as  all  these  other  facts,  and  that  faith  in  it  is  not  so  much  a 
matter  of  reason,  or  of  science,  as  it  is  of  intuition,  experi- 
ence and  actual  demonstration. 

While,  then,  it  is  well  for  us  to  give  some  consideration 
to  the  question,  How  is  prayer  of  use  ?  it  is  not  the  part 
of  wisdom  for  us  to  perplex  ourselves,  or  to  allow  ourselves 
to  be  perplexed,  with  inquisitive  speculations  about  it.  It 
is  enough  that  prayer  is  of  use,  and  that  by  an  innate 
impulse,  like  that  which  impels  the  child  to  cling  to  the 
protection  of  its  mother,  Ave  are  moved,  particularly  in  every 
season  of  deepest  need  and  of  highest  moral  consciousness, 
to  avail  ourselves  of  it.  Here  is  the  impregnable  basis  for 
faith  in  prayer.  Prayer,  in  some  form,  is  an  instinct  of  our 
natui'e.  Every  religious  sentiment  prompts  it.  Everything 
in  the  shape  of  religious  instruction  enjoins  it.  The  Bible, 
especially,  is  full  of  injunctions,  urging  it  as  a  duty,  as  well 
as  of  declarations  and  promises,  assuring  us  of  its  power. 
Unless,  then,  our  nature  is  mocking  us  by  suggesting  what 
is  only  a  farce,  and  unless  the  Bible  is  dealing  falsely  with 
us,  and  all  the  noblest  lives  it  records  and  that  are  elsewhere 
recorded  are  fitted  only  to  deceive  us,  prayer  is  not  simply 
an  instinct,  but  a  duty,  a  privilege  and  a  means  to  important 
ends  not  otherwise  to  be  attained. 


184  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

On  this  basis  we  are  to  stand,  "  continuing  instant  in 
prayer,"  Avhatever  the  questions  Ave  can  ask  but  cannot 
answer  concerning  it,  assured  that  "  the  effectual,  fervent 
prayer  .  .  .  availeth  much."  ]\Iuch  good  is  lost  to  us 
because  of  a  too  curious  disposition  to  inquire  and  specu- 
late about  the  rationale  of  things  —  as  if  one  should  stand 
before  a  rosebush,  and  decline  to  pluck  a  flower,  or  to  enjoy 
the  fragrance,  until  he  can  tell  exactly  how  the  flower 
grows,  and  how  its  perfume  comes.  It  is  so  with  many 
persons,  particularly  in  this  matter  of  prayer.  As  some 
one  has  well  said,  "  Philosophy  asks  a  reason  for  the  eflS- 
cacy  of  prayer,  and,  waiting  for  an  answer,  never  prays  at 
all.  Religion,  wiser,  hears  that  God  will  be  inquired  of  by 
us,  thankfully  bends  the  knee,  and  bears  away  the  bless- 
ing." There  are  not  lacking  numerous  facts  which  serve 
to  show  that  prayer  maij  avail,  even  in  respect  to  the  res- 
toration of  health,  the  relief  of  hunger,  the  conversion  of 
the  wayward,  and  the  whole  class  of  blessings  to  which 
these  belong.  John  Murray's  Life  furnishes  several  inci- 
dents that  point  strongly  in  this  direction  ;  and  a  multitude 
of  examples  of  the  same  nature,  and  of  great  interest,  might 
be  gathered  from  the  fields  of  history  and  biography.  Nor, 
though  some  choose  to  sneer  at  it  as  a  piece  of  charlatanry, 
is  the  case  of  George  Miiller,  and  the  work  he  has  done, 
without  very  serious  claims  on  our  consideration  in  this 
connection.  Not  to  aflSrm  anything  positively  in  respect  to 
this  side  of  the  subject,  however,  —  for  the  reason,  I  am 
frank  to  confess,  that  it  is  not  altogether  clear  to  my  own 
mind  precisely  how  much  is  to  be  affirmed,  —  it  is  enough 
now  to  say  that,  as  regards  all  our  moral  and  spiritual  inter- 
ests, —  as  regards  religious  strength  and  growth  and  peace,- 
and  all  that  most  concerns  us  as  souls,  —  prayer  is  not  only 
an  irrepressible  instinct  in  every  hour  of  exposure,  suffering, 
or  grateful  emotion,  but  has  effectually  demonstrated  its  use 
in  the  results  that  have  followed  it  ever  sincti  man  first 
poured  his  petitions  into  the  car  of  God. 

Let  it  be  admitted  tliat  there  are  those  who  pray  who 
seem  to  be  in  no  way  benefited  by  their  prayers.  But  say- 
ing the  words  of  prayer  is  not  praying.  There  are  h^q^o- 
crites  in  prayer,  as  in  every  other  good  thing.     There  are 


PRAYER.  185 

those,  too,  who  pray  only  prayers  of  custom,  necessity,  or 
form  —  not  hypocritical  prayers,  but  perfunctory  prayers, 
in  which  there  is  no  earnestness,  no  vitality,  no  soul,  — 
mere  drudgery  in  the  way  of  spiritual  exercise.  We  can- 
not tell,  indeed,  how  much  worse  those  would  be  who  thus 
pray  without  becoming  any  better,  if  they  did  not  pray  after 
this  poor  fashion  ;  but  it  is  the  one  sufficient  answer  to  all 
such  seeming-  instances  of  the  inutility  of  prayer,  that  it  is 
the  prayer,  not  of  the  hypocrite,  or  of  the  formalist,  but  of 
the  devout  and  earnest  soul,  to  which  the  promise  is  given, 
and  the  effect  of  which  we  must  observe  if  we  would  test 
the  use  of  prayer. 

And,  thus  judged,  what  is  the  verdict  concerning  the  effi- 
cacy of  prayer '{  Who  have  been  the  world's  noblest  work- 
ers, —  the  world's  most  triumphant  sufferers,  —  the  world's 
grandest  heroes,  —  the  world's  most  robust  and  impressive 
examples  of  virtue  ?  Who  but  those  who  have  been  made 
so  by  the  helpful  and  uplifting  power  of  prayer  ?  And, 
through  the  ages,  among  all  those  who  have  prayed  as  a 
child  throws  itself  upon  the  bosom  of  its  mother,  clasping 
God's  hand,  and  reposing  their  heads  on  Ilis  breast  in  love 
and  trust  and  holy  communion,  desiring  Ilis  grace  and  bless- 
ing, where  can  one  be  found  of  whom  it  can  be  said,  Here 
is  a  man  or  woman  who  derived  no  good  from  prayer  ? 
AVhat  would  Abraham,  or  Moses,  or  Samuel,  or  David,  or 
Isaiah  have  been  without  prayer  ?  What  would  John,  or 
Paul,  or  Peter  have  been  without  prayer  ?  Without  prayer, 
where  would  have  been  the  character  and  achievements 
which  we  now  venerate  in  any  of  the  sainted  souls  who 
shine  as  suns  and  stars  in  the  moral  firmament  of  history  ? 
Nay,  without  prayer,  how  could  he  who  stands  before  us  in 
the  life  so  beautiful  and  yet  so  sublime,  towering  so  far 
above  all  merely  human  excellence,  have  been  the  Christ  he 
was  ?  It  is  to  such  examples  that  those  should  look  wlio 
cite  the  fact  that  hypocrites  and  formalists  pray,  and  seem- 
ingly pray  in  vain,  to  prove  that  it  does  no  good  to  pray. 
These  are  God's  demonstrations  that  there  is  good  in  ear- 
nest, real  prayer  ;  God's  witnesses  that  whoever  asks  re- 
ceives ;  the  providential  confirmations  of  His  fidelity  to  His 
promise,  that  no  soul  sincerely  seeking  good  from  Hini  shall 
be  turned  .away  empty. 


186  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

To  these  and  similar  examples,  then,  all  who  have  any 
moral  earnestness,  desiring  to  grow  better  themselves,  and 
to  see  the  Church  of  Christ,  of  any  and  of  all  names,  be- 
coming mightier  for  its  conflict  with  evil,  should  put  them- 
selves to  school.  Reasoning  and  speculating,  the  theory  of 
the  subject  may  not  be  as  transparent  to  us,  in  its  depths, 
as  we  would  be  glad  to  see  it ;  but  these  examples  make 
the  yhc^s  undeniable  and  clear.  Better  than  the  most  subtile 
philosophy,  more  convincing  than  the  ablest  argument,  they 
are  the  practical  proofs  that  it  is  not  useless  to  pray. 
Prayer,  they  certify  us,  is  the  medium  through  which  God 
comes  nearest  to  us,  pouring  most  of  himself  into  our  being. 
As  the  hymn  well  says,  — 

"  Prayer  is  the  Christian's  vital  breath, — 
The  Christian's  native  air,  — 
The  watchword  at  the  gate  of  death ; 
He  enters  heaven  by  prayer." 

Or,  as  another  hymn  says,  — 

"  Restraining  prayer,  we  cease  to  fight; 
Prayer  keeps  the  Christian's  armor  bright." 

Prayer  is  the  nutriment  of  faith  ;  the  inspiration  to  endeav- 
or ;  the  means  of  consolation  in  sorrow ;  the  ladder  of 
Jacob,  on  which  we  climb  into  higher  light,  into  a  riper 
character,  into  a  sweeter  peace.  In  proportion  as  prayer 
is  neglected,  religious  interest  decays ;  all  the  elements  of 
Christian  experience  wither  ;  its  best  resources  fail.  World- 
liness  supplants  thoughtfulness  and  devotion.  The  richest 
graces  of  the  Christian  life  languish.  The  lethargy  of  in- 
difference steals  over  the  soul.  Spiritual  death  ensues,  and 
there  is  necessarily  an  utter  lack  of  spiritual  power.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  proportion  as  we  pray,  every  moral  pur- 
pose is  strengthened.  God's  presence  is  felt.  Christ's 
preciousness  is  understood.  Immortality  becomes  more 
real.  Every  spiritual  resource  is  augmented.  Our  faults 
and  sins  arc  mourned  with  more  poignant  feeling,  and  con- 
quered in  a  completer  victory.  More  and  more,  we  are 
made  vital  with  the  life  of  God,  and,  in  harmony  with  Him, 
attain  on  earth  something  of  heaven. 

True,  we  often  ask  for  what  we  do  not  receive ;  and,  as 


PRAYER.  187 

often  as  we  do,  tbose  who  disparage  prayer  eagerly  exclaim, 
There,   see  how  futile  all  your  praying  is  !     But  not  so. 
With  every  prayer  we  offer,  if  we  pray  aright,  whatever 
the  special  thing  for  which  we  plead,  we  pray  for  a  clearer 
knowledge  of  God,  for  a  deeper  sense  of  His  loving  pres- 
ence, for  a  trust  and   reconciliation  more  entire,  for  grace 
and  fortitude  to  bear  whatever  may  be  appointed  us,  saying 
always,  "Thy  will,  not  ours,  be  done."     Grant,  then,  that 
the  specific  thing  for  which  we  plead  is  not  bestowed,  — 
that  the  calamity  or  misfortune  we  would  be  spared  comes, 
—  that  the  good  we  crave  is  denied  :   if  through  our  prayer, 
and  because  of  it,  we  attain  a   higher  frame   of  soul,   be- 
coming calmer,  more   self-possessed,   stronger  to   bear  the 
cross,  or  to   pass   through  the  trial,  does   not   our  prayer 
prove  effectual,  and  vindicate  its  worth,  notwithstanding  ? 
Though  one  request  is   denied,  another  —  and,  if  we  have 
faith  in  God,  we   must  believe,  that  which,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, is  best  for  us  —  is  granted.     Thus  it  was  with 
Christ.      His  whole  life  was  a  prayer,  and  the  record  tells 
us,  especially,  how  he  prayed  and  even  agonized  in  Geth- 
semane.     His  sensitive  nature  shrank  from  the  terrible  or- 
deal before  him,  —  from  the  buffetiugs  of  the  judgment-hall 
and  the  tortures  of  the  cross.     And  so  he  prayed,  "  Father, 
if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me  ;  nevertheless, 
not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt."     Over  and  over  again,  he 
prayed  that  prayer.     But  it  was   not  granted.     The   cup 
from  which  he  so  recoiled  did  not  pass  from  him.      For  our 
sake,  he  drained  it  to  its  dregs.     But  was  his  prayer,  there- 
fore, in  vain  ?     AVho  will  say  so  ?     God's  will  was  done  ; 
and  as  it  was  done,  through  that  prayer  there  came  to  the 
tried  and  shrinking  soul  of  the  sufferer  a  sense  of  God,  and 
a  serene  submission  to  His  will,  which  enabled  him  to  take 
up  his  cross   and  go  trustfully  to  his  death,  making  the 
mount  of  agony  the  throne  of  triumph. 

And  so  prayer  always  proves  effectual,  when  offered  in 
the  right  spirit  —  if  not  in  oneway,  then  in  another.  Stand- 
ing at  the  entx-ance  of  some  path  of  trial,  which  we  shrink 
from  entering,  we  may  ask  to  be  saved  from  the  necessity 
of  walking  there  ;  —  bending  above  the  bed  of  some  dear 
child  or  friend,  we  may  plead  that  the  life  so  precious  may 


188  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

be  continued  ;  —  amidst  our  honorable  struggles  for  success, 
we  may  ask  God  to  prosper  us ;  —  bowed  with  disease, 
racked  with  pain,  suffering  in  poverty,  we  may  pray  for  the 
relief  we  yearn  for,  and,  as  in  Christ's  case  when  he  so  be- 
sought that  his  cup  might  pass  irom  him,  our  request  may 
not  be  granted.  But  if,  in  that  spirit  of  trust  and  submis- 
sion which  he  exhibited,  and  which  is  of  the  very  essence 
of  all  true  prayer,  our  petitions  have  gone  up  to  the  Father, 
they  siiall  bring  us,  though  not  the  thing  which  Avas  the  bur- 
den of  our  request,  yet  such  help  and  strength  as  will  show 
that  Ills  ear  is  not  closed,  nor  His  hand  withheld.  Through 
that  path  of  trial  we  shall  be  able  to  walk  patient,  resigned, 
serene.  Above  the  cold  form  of  the  dear  one  we  would 
have  retained,  we  shall  be  aided  to  stand,  and  fold  the  cold 
bands  across  the  breast  as  cold,  and  smooth  the  hair  above 
the  brow  we  have  kissed,  and  take  the  last  look  at  the  face 
that  has  so  often  and  so  tenderly  been  pressed  to  ours,  and 
through  it  all,  though  our  eyes  are  full  of  tears  and  our 
heart  is  aching  with  the  terrible  sense  of  its  loss,  we  shall 
see  the  light  of  heaven  making  the  grave  beautiful,  and  feel 
God's  support,  and  rejoice  in  the  grace  that  is  sufiScient  for 
us.  Amidst  our  disappointed  plans  and  our  wrecked  hopes, 
we  shall  still  look  up,  rejoicing  that  God  is  over  all  ;  and, 
though  languishing  in  sick  rooms,  and  turning  uneasily  in 
our  pain,  we  shall  find  that,  through  the  sweetness  of  our 
converse  with  Him,  God's  ministering  angels  are  visiting 
us,  and  that  courage  and  trust  are  given  to  endure  what  we 
would  escape,  but  cannot. 

And  these,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  effectual  answers  to 
prayer,  which  make  it  most  a  privilege  and  best  attest  its 
use.  It  is  permitted  us  to  go  to  God  in  the  freedom  of 
filial  confidence,  asking  for  what  wo  will,  if  we  but  ask  in 
submission  to  His  wise  and  holy  pleasure  ;  but  the  blessings 
which  enrich,  enlarge,  and  fortify  the  soul,  lifting  us  towards 
God  and  making  us  more  perfectly  His  children  —  vigor  of 
moral  purpose  ;  the  sense  of  nearness  and  acceptance  ;  the 
experience  of  Divine  support ;  strength  in  weakness  ;  com- 
fort in  the  hour  of  affliction  ;  light  in  darkness  ;  victory  over 
our  hinderances  and  our  sins,  —  the  blessings  whicli  keep  us 
in  fresh  and  constant  contact  v:ith  spiritual  realities,  and  thus 


PRAYER.  189 

give  US  increasing  power  and  unction  from  on  high  —  these 
are  the  blessings  most  desirable,  and  which,  sincerely  offered, 
prayer  never  iails  to  bring.  No  matter  how,  or  when,  or 
where  we  pray,?/"w;e  truly  pray,  down  through  the  windows  of 
heaven  which  our  prayers,  ascending,  have  opened,  God  will 
•  shed  these  gifts  upon  us,  so  proving  the  eflScacy  of  prayer, 
according  to  the  measure  of  our  faitli,  tlie  earnestness  of 
our  purpose,  the  submissiveness  of  our  spirit,  the  continuous- 
ness  of  our  supplications. 

Profoundly  convinced  of  the  truth  of  these  several  state- 
ments, and  as  profoundly  convinced,  therefore,  of  the  incal- 
culable importance  of  this  subject  to  all,  and  to  none  more 
than  to  us  as  individuals  and  as  a  Church,  I  urge  it,  with 
the  intensest  emphasis  I  can  command,  upon  the  serious 
consideration  of  every  Universalist  to  whom  these  pages  ■ 
come.  Are  you,  whose  eyes  are  now  resting  on  these  words, 
a  praying  man  or  woman  ?  If  the  head  of  a  family,  have 
you  a  family  altar,  at  which,  every  day,  God's  word  is  read, 
and  His  name  honored,  and  His  love  praised  ?  If  a  father, 
or  a  mother,  are  you  training  your  children  to  daily  com- 
munion with  God,  and  seeking  thus  to  fill  your  home  with 
the  atmosphere  of  religious  thoughtfulness  and  devotion  ? 
If  a  j^oung  man,  or  a  young  woman,  are  you  realizing  your 
exposures  and  your  needs,  and,  every  morning  or  evening, 
going  to  the  Source  of  light  and  strength  for  the  guidance 
and  support  you  require  ?  Young,  middle-aged,  or  old, 
whatever  your  position  or  relations,  have  you  your  closet 
and  your  hour  of  prayer  ?  And  are  you  thus  endeavoring 
to  fulfil  the  deepest  requirements  of  your  own  personal  life, 
and,  so  far  as  your  influence  can  go,  to  make  our  Church 
vital  with  the  spiritual  effluence  that  prayer  alone  invokes, 
and  mighty  with  the  power  that  oxAj  prayer  can  give  ?  If  so, 
pray  on,  growing  more  and  more  fervid  and  earnest.  If  not, 
let  me  plead  with  you,  if  you  have  any  actual  interest  in  re- 
ligion, and  wish  to  have  more,  —  if  on  your  conscience 
presses,  or  begins  to  press,  any  sense  of  your  religious 
needs,  or  obligations,  —  if  the  story  of  Christ's  life  and 
death  awakens  any  concern  in  your  heart,  and  you  have  any 
love  for  him  or  his  Gospel,  or  any  desire  to  help  on  his 
kingdom  in  the  conversion  of  souls,  or  in  your  own  growth 


190  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

—  or  in  the  growth  of  your  children,  if  you  have  any  —  in 
his  discipleship,  feel  what  prayer  is,  and  henceforth  give  your- 
self to  it.  If  our  Lord  himself  felt  the  need  of  prayer,  and 
saw  it  important  that  he  should  use  it  as  a  means  of  further- 
ing his  kingdom,  who  of  us  is  superior  to  the  necessity 
which  he  thus  confessed,  or,  avowing  faith  in  the  truth  he 
taught,  should  be  unwilling  to  employ  the  same  means  to 
the  same  great  end  ? 

Especially  would  I  plead  with  those  having  children  under 
their  charge,  to  reflect  upon  this  subject.  We  defraud  our 
children  of  an  important  element  in  the  preparation  for  life, 
when  we  fail  to  make  prayer  and  every  means  of  religious, 
impression  a  part  of  their  education.  A  thoughtful  and  sen- 
sitive child  —  now  a  young  lady  —  some  years  ago  read 
"Home  Influence,"  and,  talking  with  friends  in  presence  of 
her  parents  about  its  story  of  the  power  of  family  prayer, 
supplemented  by  a  consistent  religious  example,  to  chasten 
and  hallow  the  lives  of  children,  sadly  said,  "  We  have  no 
such  influence  in  our  home,  mother."  Who  can  tell  how 
much  she  was  surprised  and  shocked  at  the  contrast  she 
thus  noted,  or  how  much  was  lost  to  her  life  because  her 
home  had  been  without  this  influence  ?  Quite  of  another 
sort  was  the  remark  of  a  young  woman  —  a  wife  and  a 
mother  —  far  away  from  the  home  of  her  childhood,  who, 
writing  on  her  birthday  to  her  mother,  said,  "  On  every 
birthday  that  comes  to  me  now  away  from  you,  I  do  so 
miss  father's  morning  prayer,  asking  God's  care  over  me 
for  another  year  !  It  always  gave  me  a  sense  of  blessedness 
to  carry  through  the  year,  and  the  feeling  that  God  took  me 
anew  under  His  guiding  hand."  Can  there  be  any  doubt 
wliat  family  prayer  had  been  as  an  element  in  her  life  ?  Or, 
with  these  two  instances  before  us,  —  samples  of  numberless 
similar  cases,  — can  there  be  any  difference  of  opinion  among 
thoughtful  minds  as  to  which  did  most  for  those  in  it  —  the 
home  that  had  no  influence  of  prayer,  or  the  home  that  had  ? 
0,  if  every  Universalist  home  could  but  have  its  altar,  and 
every  Universalist  believer  his  or  her  closet  and  hours  of 
prayer,  and  our  whole  Church  could  but  be  pervaded  by  the 
new  life  and  the  fruits  of  Divine  communion  which  would 
thus  come  to  us,  what  a  kindling  there  would  be  among  us, 


PRAYER.  191 

and  how  the  world  would  feel  the  glow  and  the  impulse  we 
should  impart ! 

Let  no  one  say  that  because 

"  Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire, 
Uttered,  or  unexpressed," 

no  words,  or  set  times,  are  necessary  ;  that  every  good 
wi«h  is  praj'ing  ;  and  that  whoever,  at  any  time,  or  any- 
where, thinks  of  God,  or  is  moved  by  a  devout  thought  or 
feeling  towards  Him,  prays  sufficiently  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses. This,  for  the  most  part,  is  the  talk  of  those  who  have 
little  faith  in  pi'ayer,  or  who  seldom  or  never  pray  —  as  the 
like  talk  that  we  can  worship  anywhere  as  well  as  in  the 
House  of  Worship  comes  usually  from  those  who  seldom  or 
never  worship  at  all.  It  is  talk  that  has  never  helped  any- 
body, but  has  made  many  a  life  prayerless,  and  many  a  soul 
empty,  and  many  a  church,  or  congregation,  a  corpse. 
True,  God  can  be  worshipped  anywhere  ;  but,  as  the  rule, 
He  is  worshipped  only  by  those  who  have  nui'tured  them- 
selves, or  been  nurtured  by  others,  in  the  mood  and  habit 
of  worshipping  in  tlie  place  consecrated  to  this  purpose.  So 
there  may  be  prayer,  or  converse  with  God,  without  words  ; 
and  some  of  the  sweetest  hours  in  every  religious  experience 
are  those  when,  with  no  petition  on  the  lips,  —  with  scarcely 
a  distinct  thought,  except  the  thought  of  God,  in  the  mind,  — 
one  becomes  absorbed  in  ecstatic  communion  with  the  Divine 
Father,  as  two  hearts,  with  no  need  of  words,  sometimes  in- 
terfuse themselves  into  each  other,  feeling  the  flow  of  a 
subtile  and  delicious  sympathy  that,  in  its  supreme  and  elec- 
tric blessedness,  would  rather  be 'jarred  and  broken  than 
helped  by  any  language  which  speech  could  frame.  But 
these  are  exceptional  seasons,  alike  in  the  relations  of  hearts 
to  each  other,  and  in  the  relations  of  souls  to  God.  Ordi- 
narily, words  are  needed  if  friends,  however  much  in  sympa- 
thy, are  to  be  put  into  communication  ;  and  by  a  similar 
necessity,  if  souls  are  to  hold  intercourse  with  God,  and 
prayer  is  really  and  availingly  to  be  made,  there  must  be 
set  times  for  it,  and  we  must  accustom  ourselves  to  put  our 
requests  into  fit  and  articulate  speech.  Christ  gave  us 
words,  saying,   "After  this   manner   pray  ye:"  shall    we 


192  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

treat  them  as  worthless  ?  He  put  his  own  prayers  into 
speech  :  are  we  more  indei^endent  of  it  than  he  ?  He  had 
his  seasons  for  prayer  :  have  we  no  occasion  for  what  he 
thus  required  ?  No  doubt  he  had  his  hours  of  exaltation 
and  voiceless  communion  ;  but  in  this  custom  of  spoken 
prayer,  at  stated  times,  as  well  as  in  the  model  he  left,  he 
indicated  the  law  of  necessity  in  the  case.  And  it  is  for  us 
to  understand  that  the  best  results  of  prayer  are  not  to  be 
attained  except  as  we  comply  with  the  conditions  thus  im- 
posed, for  the  reason  that  wo  cannot  otherwise  best  form 
the  habit  of  prayer,  nor  most  distinctly  frame  our  thoughts 
and  petitions  into  the  mould  of  prayer. 

As  little  does  it  avail  for  any  one  to  say,  I  am  diffident, 
or  slow  of  speech,  and  shrink  from  attempting  to  lead  in 
prayer,  or  find  it  impossible  to  command  language,  especial- 
ly in  the  presence  of  others.  No  doubt  there  are  those 
who  can  plead  one  or  both  of  these  statements  with  truth. 
But  the  difficulty,  in  any  case,  is  rather  imaginary  than  real. 
In  this  as  in  other  things,  facility,  usually,  comes  with  prac- 
tice ;  and  there  are  Books  of  Prayer  within  reach  of  all,  while 
self-command  and  practice  are  being  acquired.  The  most 
diffident,  or  the  slowest  of  speech,  can  at  least  read  a  chap- 
ter in  the  Bible,  or  unite  with  others  in  reading  it,  and 
then  cither  lead,  or  have  some  one  else  lead,  in  prayer, 
using  a  book.  It  is  only  the  will  to  pray,  one's  self,  or 
to  institute  family  prayer,  that  is,  under  any  circumstances, 
wanted.  This  determined,  everything  else  will,  in  some 
way,  easily  follow.  So  in  respect  to  the  excuse.  As  we  are 
situated,  we  cannot  find  a  time  for  family  prayer.  If  hearts 
hunger  for  prayer,  the  time  will  be  found. 

Prayer,  it  is  true,  does  not  fulfil  all  duty.  Other  things 
are  important.  Better  a  conscientious  discharge  of  every 
moral  obligation  without  prayer,  so  far  as  it  is  possible,  than 
a  life  full  of  prayer  and  abounding  in  talk  about  religion,  but 
empty  of  the  evidence  of  a  real  regard  for  God  or  duty. 
Better  homos  in  which  the  voice  of  prayer  is  never  heard, 
if  they  are  pervaded  by  a  kindly  and  loving  spirit,  and  a  gen- 
eral endeavor  to  make  them  real  homes  by  fidelity  to  every 
tender  office,  than  homes  with  family  prayer  every  night  and 
morning,  and  filled  with  religious  form  and  chatter,  in  which 
those  who  pray  and  profess  to  be  devoted  to  religion  make 


PRAYER.  193 

everybody  uncomfortable  by  a  morose  or  fractious  temper, 
and  by  a  general  irrcligiousness  of  manner  and  spirit.  I 
once  had  a  teacher  who  opened  school  every  morning  with 
a  Bible-lesson  and  prayer  ;  and,  frequently,  hardly  had  he 
said.  Amen,  when  he  would  angrily  throw  the  Testament  out 
of  which  he  had  just  been  reading,  or  something  else  near 
his  hand,  at  some  scholar  whom,  through  his  glasses  while 
praying,  he  had  seen  inattentive  or  disorderly.  Need  it  be 
said  that  his  praying  did  not  avail  much  to  fill  us  with  re- 
spect for  religion  ?  So  praying,  anywhere,  is  only  a  bur- 
lesque of  religion,  doing  more  against  than  it  can  do  for  it, 
if  there  be  not  with  it  a  temper,  a  manner,  a  general  influ- 
ence in  keeping  with  it,  or  at  least  a  constant  and  manifest 
effort  to  put  the  substance  of  religion  into  character  and 
daily  life.  But  while  all  this  is  true  as  to  the  necessity  of 
something  besides  prayer,  it  is  also  true  that  neither  by  in- 
dividuals, nor  by  a  Church,  are  the  best  things  to  he  attained 
except  through  prayer  — fervent,  intelligent,  consistent  prayer. 
This  is  the  lesson  that  all  churches  and  multitudes  of  no 
church  have  need  to  learn,  and  that  none  have  more  occa- 
sion than  we,  —  that  few  have  so  much  as  we,  to  learn. 
AVhat  the  woidd  wants  of  us  —  the  destiny  that  God  is  prof- 
fering us —  is,  that  we  shall  be  the  revolutionizing,  regen- 
erating, quickening  Church  of  the  Future,  gathering  into 
itself  the  choicest  resources  of  spiritual  influence,  and  send- 
ing out  this  influence  for  the  salvation  of  our  race.  But  we 
cannot  be  this  except  as  we  become  more  generally,  and 
with  increased  fervor  and  unction,  a  praying  people  —  with 
pra3uug  fathers  and  mothers  in  our  homes  ;  with  praying 
superintendents  and  teachers  in  our  Sunday-schools  ;  with 
praying  young  men  and  young  women  in  our  congregations  ; 
with  praying  ministers  and  members  in  our  churches. 

Shall  we  not,  then,  have  the  New  Departure  we  so  much 
need  in  this  respect  ?  Preach  about  it,  0  brethren  of  the 
ministry.  Talk  about  it,  0  teachers  in  the  Sunday-school. 
Enforce  it  as  alike  a  privilege  and  a  duty,  by  word  and  by 
example,  0  believers  all.  Then  shall  a  new  day  open  for 
us,  as,  taking  our  New  Departure,  we  become  filled  with  a 
new  impulse,  and  go  forward  with  new  energy,  to  larger 
and  grander  results. 
13 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

OUR  MINISTRY. 

Every  army  must  have  its  leaders  ;  and  as  are  the  leaders, 
so,  as  the  rule,  will  the  ai'my  be.  The  ministers  of  a  church 
are  its  leaders  ;  and  no  church,  whatever  else  it  may  have, 
can  be  a  live,  enterprising,  consecrated,  growing  church,  ex- 
cept as  it  has  live,  enterprising,  consecrated  ministers,  giv- 
ing themselves  in  Christ's  spirit  to  the  furtherance  of  its 
growth,  through  the  conversion  and  enlistment  of  souls. 
We  have  had  many  such  ministers  ;  and  our  history  is  fra- 
grant with  their  names  and  the  influence  of  their  labors. 
As  I  trace  these  lines,  the  faces  of  some  such  whom  I  have 
known,  and  of  others  who  preceded  them,  shine  out  of  the 
Past,  and  come  clustering,  a  sacred  and  glorious  '  cloud  of 
witnesses,'  about  me  :  —  Turner,  Richards,  and  Hosea  Bal- 
Lou ;  dear,  saintly  Dr.  Ballou,  one  of  the  simplest,  sweet- 
est, grandest  souls  that  ever  walked  the  earth  ;  Sebastian 
Streeter,  S.  R.  Smith,  and  Otis  Skinner  ;  Hanscom,  so  full 
of  zeal  and  so  early  called ;  Henry  Bacon,  John  Boyden, 
and  James  W.  Putnam — these  are  but  part  of  the  company. 
And  only  a  little  while  ago,  after  a  long  and  weary  struggle 
with  disease,  another  passed  on  to  these  faithful  ones  — 
Franklin  Samuel  Bliss,  a  man  of  no  brilliant  gifts,  or  con- 
spicuous position,  and  of  many  bodily  infirmities  ;  but  a 
man  of  faith  and  prayer,  who,  in  spite  of  numerous  phys- 
ical impediments,  which  most  persons  would  have  regarded 
as  insuperable,  gave  himself  to  Christ,  and  the  endeavor  to 
lead  others  to  him,  with  a  sincerity  and  unction  so  impres- 
sive and  a  consecration  so  entire,  —  and  loved  our  whole 
Church  with  a  heart  so  large  and  warm,  and  a  response  so 
ready, — and  supplemented  all  with  a  life  so  penetrated 
with  the  spirit  and  power  of  our  faith,  and  therefore  so 
pure  and  Christian,  that  his  very  feebleness  became  mighty, 
and  the  fields  in  which  he  toiled  bore  fruit  in  spiritual  har- 

194 


OUR  MINISTRY.  195 

vests  which  will  long  attest  how  effectually  he  wrought. 
Devoted  and  sainted  one  1  with  what  pathos  come  to  us 
who  knew  him  and  the  limitations  by  which  he  was  hin- 
dered, those  words  among  his  last,  as  he  thought  of  the 
work  God  had  for  him  to  do  on  the  other  side,  "  I  shall  not 
be  deaf  or  blind  in  heaven ;  no  weakness,  no  weariness 
there."  Rather  a  thousand  times  would  I  choose  the  record 
of  this  humble,  unpretending,  comparatively  obscure  ser- 
vant of  the  Lord,  as  it  stands  in  God's  reckonings,  than 
that  of  many  another  man  of  far  greater  gifts  and  more 
commanding  power  and  wider  fame,  but  without  his  love  for 
Christ  and  his  zeal  for  souls.  And  we  have  had  not  a  few 
Buch.^  The  annals  of  any  church  may  be  searched  in  vain 
for  ministers  more  apostolic,  heroic,  or  saintly,  or  more 
worthy  to  be  held  up  as  models,  than  those  who  have  thus 
honored  our  ministry,  and  helped  to  command  respect  and 
win  success  for  our  cause. 

But  like  others,  we  have  had  far  too  many  of  quite  an- 
other class.  Singularly  fortunate  we  have  been,  consider- 
ing our  circumstances,  and  how  our  ministry  has  been  re- 
cruited, in  respect  to  the  immoralities  which  have  so  stained 
and  stigmatized  the  ministerial  profession  of  other  names. 
But  while  we  have  had  great  cause  for  thanksgiving  in  this 
respect,  though  our  skirts  have  not  been  altogether  clear, 
what  a  motley  assemblage  we  should  have,  were  we  to  cull 
out  from  those  who,  nominally  or  really  among  our  minis- 
ters, have  been  unsuited  to  the  work  —  say  during  the  last 
forty  years  1  Imagine  the  gathering,  grouped  according  to 
'  gifts  '  and  character  !  —  here,  those  interested  solely  in 
the  negative  or  argumentative  side  of  our  faith,  with  no 
taste  or  care  for  its  moral  and  spiritual  meanings  or  appli- 
cations,—  intent  only  on  controversy;  here,  adventurers 
'taking  up  '  the  ministry  simply  as  a  means  to  'get  a  liv- 
ing,' with  no  heart  or  conscience  in  it ;  here,  men  adrift, 
lodging  for  a  time  in  our  pulpits,  as  logs  or  chips,  floating 
in  a  stream,  lodge  on  the  bank,  or  against  a  rock,  until 
some  eddy,  or  some  fresh  movement  of  the  waters,  chances 
to  displace  and  send  them  farther  on ;  here,  minds  undisci- 
plined, often  unbalanced,  restless,  crotchety,  impracticable  ; 
here,  rattle-brained  lovers  of  novelty  and  excitement,  catch- 


196  OUR  NEW   DEPARTUEE. 

ing  at  every  fresh  sensation,  and  at  length  whirled  off  by 
the  latest ;  here,  pieces  of  inflamed,  or  pompous,  self- 
conceit,  enacting  the  part  of  the  frog  in  the  fable,  or  inces- 
santly fretting,  because  denied  appreciation ;  here,  hot- 
heads, impetuous,  frothy,  unreasonable,  usually  unscrupu- 
lous ;  here,  those  whose  perpetual  thought  has  been  of  self, 
and  whose  entire  lives  have  turned  upon  some  personal,  or 
local,  pivot,  with  no  breadth  of  view,  with  no  public  spirit, 
with  no  devotion  to  our  Church  or  our  cause  as  a  whole, 
caring  only  for  the  patch  of  ground  their  feet  have  covered, 
or  their  hoe  has  tilled,  and  anxious  exclusively  for  what 
they  were  themselves  somehow  to  get  out  of  it ;  here, 
schismatics,  or  latitudinarians,  always  riding  some  hobby, 
or  protesting  against  rules,  or  advocating  license  under  the 
name  of  freedom,  and  caring  only  for  a  nominal  fellowship 
that  they  might  the  better  serve  their  factious,  noisy,  liti- 
gious, or  personal  ends  ;  here,  the  listless  and  indifferent, 
insensible  to  all  appeals,  though  every  appeal  might  be 
blown  through  Gabriel's  trumpet,  and  indisposed  to  lift  a 
finger  in  the  way  of  co-operation,  whatever  the  necessities 
demanding  it ;  and  here,  finally,  the  drones,  ignoramuses, 
do-nothings,  '  settling '  every  year,  and  occupying  any  field 
only  to  exhaust  it.  A  motley  company,  indeed  !  —  greatly 
differing  as  to  ability  and  the  shadings  of  motives  and  pur- 
pose, or  no-purpose,  but  having,  most  of  them,  these  two 
things  in  common,  viz.,  an  utter  lack  of  any  thorough  reli- 
gious awakening  or  experience,  and  an  absence  of  any  real 
sympathy  with  the  ministry,  or  any  central,  absorbing  con- 
secration to  it. 

Let  no  one  suppose  that  I  thus  refer  to  those  who  have 
been  in  our  ministry  without  being  fitted  for  it,  as  if  they 
ever  had  been,  or  —  so  far  as  we  now  have  them  —  are, 
peculiar  to  us.  The  ministry  of  every  church  shows  such. 
But  without  entering  into  comparisons,  or  debating  whether 
we  arc  more  or  less  unfortunate  than  others  in  this  partic- 
ular, all  having  any  familiarity  with  the  facts  will  agree 
that  we  have  sorely  suffered  on  this  account.  Who  of  us, 
of  any  length  of  service,  has  not  known  numerous  speci- 
mens of  every  one  of  the  groups  described,  and  seen  the 
mischief  they  have  done  ?     And  no  one  who  has  had  any- 


OUE  MINISTRY.  197 

thing  like  a  personal  acquaintance  with  those  who  have 
been  enrolled  in  our  "Register  "  since  its  first  publication,  can 
look  through  the  successive  issues  and  draw  a  pen  across 
the  names  of  those  who  should  never  have  entered  a  pulpit, 
or  who,  if  of  right  ability  and  character  in  other  respects, 
have  been  lazy  and  irresponsive  occupants  of  it,  without 
finding  occasion  for  surprise  and  thanksgiving  that  we  are 
as  strong  and  prosperous  as  we  are. 

And  yet,  how  could  it  well  have  been  otherwise  than  it 
has  been  with  us  in  this  regard  ?     A  new  movement  as  ours 
was,    bursting   out  of   the  heart    and  unlettered   common- 
sense  of  the  people,  —  led  almost  exclusively  by  uneducated 
men,  — making  fighting,  of  necessity,  its  chief  business, — 
without  schools  or  colleges, — without  organization,  —  with 
crude  and  insufficient  rules  of  fellowship  and  discipline,  — 
so   needing   ministers  and   so  ambitious  for  a  show   of  in- 
creasing numbers,  —  with  the  doors  into  our  ministry  open 
to  every  stripling,   or  talker,  however  unripe,  or   unquali- 
fied, who  had  walked  through  a  preacher's  '  study,'  or  who 
was  moved  by  any  motive  to  preach,  it  is  only  a  matter 
of  amazement  that  we  have    had    so   many  excellent  and 
tolerable  ministers    as  we  have,  and  a  number   no    larger 
of  the    other  description.      Since    I    cannot  properly  men- 
tion others  as  examples,  may  I  be  excused  for  illustrating 
how  entrance  was  had  to  our  ministry  by  referring  to   my 
own   case?      I   was    '  fellowshipped '   in   June,   1836,  just 
before   I  was  twenty  years   old.     I  had    left  a  very   poor 
town-school  —  strangely  called  'High'  —  a  few  months  be- 
fore I  was   seventeen,  with  a  meagre  smattering  of  Latin 
and  Greek  and  several  other  things,  with  a  mind  totally 
undisciplined,  and  thoroughly  knowing  nothing  beyond  the 
rudimentary  studies.     From  March  to  November,  1833,  as 
many  another  poor  lad   has  done,  having  his  own  way  to 
make,  I  was  'prospecting'   for   'something  to   do,' hardly 
taking  a  book  in   my  hand,  when  Providence  opened  the 
way  for  me  to  become  a  student  in  a  Law  Office,  far  away 
from  my  home.     I  accepted  it  at  once  because  nothing  else 
so  desirable  offered,  though  it  had  been  my  determination, 
from  very  early  boyhood,  to  make  the  ministry  my  life-work. 
I   found   myself  amidst   very   delightful   associations,  but 


198  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

where  I  had  to  hold  my  Universalism  by  a  constant  battle. 
Here,  therefore,  attending,  for  the  most  part,  only  '  the 
orthodox  meeting,'  and  thrown  upon  my  own  resources,  I 
obtained  for  the  first  time  anything  like  discipline  and  logi- 
cal coherence  in  my  religious  thinking.  Returning  to  my 
home  in  the  summer  of  1835,  I  soon  after  began,  as  it  was 
called,  'to  study'  with  Rev.  T.  F.  King,  the  Portsmouth 
pastor  :  —  that  is,  he  gave  me  Mosheim,  and  subsequently 
one  volume  of  Home,  to  read,  and  after  a  few  weeks  told 
me  I  "  had  better  write  a  sermon."  That  was  all !  Not  a 
lesson  recited,  not  a  question  asked,  not  a  hint  offered, 
touching  what  I  was  to  do.     Besides  the  books  mentioned 

—  saying  nothing  of  a  great  deal  of  other  reading  I  had 
done,  not  at  all  bearing  on  my  chosen  work,  and  much  of  it 
ruinously  dissipating  to  all  taste  or  relish  for  solid  reading 

—  I  had  read  the  "Trumpet "  from  its  commencement,  —  had 
read  a  few  pamphlet  sermons,  and  possibly  half  a  dozen  other 
books  relating  to  theology,  including  Paley's  "  Theology  " 
and  "  Evidences."  This,  with  some  superficial  acquaintance 
with  the  Bible,  was  my  preparation  for  the  ministry  !  And 
so  unprepared,  I  was  sent  out  with  the  formal  indorsement 
of  the  New  Hampshire  Convention,  as  entitled  to  full  con- 
fidence as  a  minister  —  without  a  single  inquiry  as  to  per- 
sonal experience,  as  to  reading  or  habits  of  study,  as  to 
opinions,  purpose,  or  anything  else  !  I  have  always  felt 
that  it  was  by  the  special  grace  of  God  that  I  was  kept 
from  shaming  the  ministry  and  our  cause  by  my  utter  unfit- 
ness—  for  a  youth  more  immature  in  all  essentials,  or  less 
prepared  in  every  particular  for  the  grave  responsibilities  I 
assumed,  save  that  I  looked  considorablj'^  older  than  I  was, 
and  had  a  sincere  desire  to  live  correctly  and  to  do  good, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  :  a  fact  which  I  unconsciously 
symbolized,  let  me  add,  by  choosing  a  coat  of  very  green, 
thin  stuff  for  that  first  summer's  wear  ! 

And  what  was  thus  illustrated  in  my  case  was  the  rule, 
even  down  to  a  much  later  period  than  1836.  Of  course,  I 
do  not  intend  to  represent  that  only  those  tlius  immature, 
or  unprepai'ed,  came  into  our  ministry.  There  were  occa- 
sionally tliose  of  riper  years  and  of  maturer  and  better-fur- 
nished minds.     But  the  rule  was   about  as  shown  in  the 


OUR   MINISTRY.  199 

illustration.  Is  it  surprising  that,  as  the  consequence,  we 
should  have  had  many,  not  only  totally  unfit  to  enter,  but 
equally  unfit  or  unable  to  stay  in  our  ministry  ?  Let  God 
be  praised,  that  out  of  such  material,  He  was  able  to  sift  so 
much  passable  wheat,  besides  some  that  was  a  great  deal 
more  than  passable  ;  and  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  risks  thus 
incurred,  we  have  had  a  ministry  on  the  whole  so  able  and 
so  Christian  as  it  has  been.  Ah,  saying  nothing  of  ability, 
if  all  our  ministers  had  been  in  other  respects  what  they 
might  have  been,  with  the  spirit  of  Dr.  Ballou,  and  John 
Boyden,  and  our  more  recently  departed  brother.  Bliss, 
what  a  different  record  we  should  have  made  !  what  a  wider 
and  profounder  work  we  should  have  done  !  what  a  difier- 
ently  equipped  Church  we  should  now  be  ! 

Has  not  the  time  come,  as  we  enter  upon  our  second  cen- 
tury, for  a  New  Departure  in  this  regard,  aiming  at  a  minis- 
try which,  as  far  as  possible,  bating  inevitable  human  foibles 
and  imperfections,  shall  be  composed  only  of  those  possessed 
of  such  a  spirit  ?  Can  we  not  henceforth  have  a  ministry, 
all  of  whom  shall  be  not  only  trained  men,  but  men  of  con- 
science, men  of  heart,  men  of  consecrated  will,  men  of  pro- 
found and  earnest  religious  life,  men  of  enthusiasm  and  en- 
terprise in  respect  to  the  conversion  of  souls  and  the  Christian 
enlargement  and  progress  of  our  Church  ?  I  approach  this 
point  with  much  hesitation.  I  am  aware  how  delicate  the 
ground  is,  and  I  shrink  from  saying  all  that  is  in  my  thought 
lest  I  be  suspected  of  assuming  some  special  fitness  warrant- 
ing me  to  say  it.  Let  it  be  understood  that  I  assume  no 
such  thing,  and  that  I  take  fully  to  myself  all  that  I  venture 
to  suggest  to  others,  better  aware  than  anybody  else  how 
far  I  fall  below  my  own  ideals.  But  I  feel  that  there  are 
some  particulars  in  which  a  change  for  the  better  in  our 
ministry  is  imperatively  demanded,  as  vital  to  our  welfare, 
and  that  some  one  should  be  frank  and  brave  enough  to  utter 
the  words  that  should  be  said,  even  at  the  risk  of  receiving 
the  old  rebuke,  "Physician,  heal  thyself."     So  I  speak. 

As  to  the  literary  and  theological  acquirements  requisite 
for  entrance  into  our  ministry,  there  is,  happily,  an  increas- 
ing conviction  in  the  right  direction.     Years  ago  it  was  a 


200  OUR  NEW  DEPAETURE. 

question  much  debated  whether  these  acquirements  were 
really  essential,  and  there  was  a  widespread  feeling  that 
they  were  not.  But  this  question  was  substantially  dis- 
posed of  in  the  establishment  of  our  first  theological  school. 
There  are  still  considerable  numbers,  it  is  true,  who  think  it 
pushing  the  matter  too  far  to  insist  upon  these  conditions 
as  in  every  instance  indispensable.  We  must  not  be  too 
strenuous  or  particular,  these  friends  say.  We  need  minis- 
ters, and  it  is  wrong  to  discourage  or  turn  away  any  good 
man  of  decent  abilitj'^  who  is  disposed  to  preach,  simply  be- 
cause he  lacks  scholastic  training.  Those  with  no  such 
training  had  formerly  free  access  to  our  pulpits,  and  many 
of  them  have  made  useful  —  some  of  them  eminent  —  minis- 
ters. Why  not  bid  such  equally  welcome  now,  at  the  same 
time  that  we  carefully  foster  our  theological  schools,  and  do 
all  we  can  to  elevate  our  ministry  through  them  ? 

Not  a  little  sympathy  would  be  found  among  us,  probably, 
with  the  view  which  thus  argues  ;  and  occasionally  one 
does  even  yet  enter  on  our  ministerial  work  with  much  the 
old  lack  of  suitable  preparation.  But  the  growing  sentiment, 
alike  of  our  ministers  and  people,  it  is  fortunate,  is  decidedly 
against  this  view,  and  in  favor  of  insisting  upon  the  best 
possible  training.  And  this  mainly  for  three  reasons  :  First, 
because  circumstances  have  so  changed,  and  the  general 
tone  of  culture  and  intelligence  so  improved,  that  such  un- 
ripe and  illy-furnished  ministers  as  many  of  us  were,  and 
such  productions  as  we  used  to  give  under  the  name  of  ser- 
mons, thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago,  would  not  be  tolerated 
now,  or  could  be  tolerated  only  to  reflect  discredit  on  all 
concerned.  It  is  no  small  thing  that  the  pulpit  in  these 
days  has  to  do  ;  and  if  it  is  to  hold  its  place,  and  maintain 
its  power  against  all  that  is  seeking  to  supplant  it,  or  that 
the  drift  of  events  is  tending  to  put  into  rivalry  with  it, 
tliere  must  be  an  end  of  admitting  into  it  what  the  Country 
Parson  once  so  felicitously  described  as  '  veal,'  or  any  but 
thoroughly  prepared  men.  No  pulpit  can  command  the  re- 
spect of  intelligent  minds,  or  do  most  for  those  who  listen  to 
it,  unless  it  is  at  least  fully  up  to  the  best  average  of  exist- 
ing thought  and  attainments  ;  and  of  all  churches,  we  can 
least  aflbrd  to  have  our  pulpit  in  any  particular  below  the 


OUR  MINISTRY.  201 

liif»-host  and  latest  demand  of  the  hour.  Second.,  because  to 
admit  any  to  our  ministry  in  an  abatement  of  the  prepara- 
tory conditions,  is  so  far  to  lower  its  standard  and  character 
as  a  whole,  tearing  down  with  one  hand  what  we  are  trj'ing 
to  build  np  with  the  other,  and  saying-  in  eflcct,  that  though 
schools  and  what  schools  can  give  arc  very  well,  they  are 
in  no  essential  respect  important,  and  that,  for  our  purposes, 
we  do  not  care  to  be  understood  to  think  them  necessary. 
And  third,  because  it  is  no  kindness,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a 
great  unkindness  and  injustice,  to  any  man  in  times  like 
these  to  encourage  or  allow  him  to  take  upon  himself  tlie 
exactions  of  the  ministrj'  except  after  the  most  careful 
preparation.  Those  who  have  in  any  measure  succeeded 
witliout  such  previous  training  have  done  so  at  immense 
disadvantage,  constantly  hampered  and  impeded  by  their 
original  deficiencies,  or  by  the  necessitj'  of  going  over 
ground,  or  making  up  attainments,  with  which  they  should 
have  been  familiar  in  the  outset ;  and  every  such  man  has 
reasons,  wliich  only  he  and  those  of  like  experience  can  fully 
appreciate,  for  using  every  influence  he  can  properly  com- 
mand to  deter  those  so  inclined  from  entering  an}'-  ministry 
in  a  similar  condition  of  unpreparedncss.  The  best  prepa- 
ration will  be  found  meagre  enough  for  the  highest  useful- 
ness. Nor  is  it  a  consideration  to  be  overlooked,  that  the 
more  rigorous  the  training  intellectually  and  theologically 
insisted  on,  the  more  effectually  will  the  ministry  be  guard- 
ed against  the  flightiness  and  eccentricities,  the  crudities, 
and  all  the  various  results  of  unbalanced  and  undisciplined 
minds,  from  which  we  have  suffered  so  severely. 

We  want  ministers,  it  is  true  ;  but  we  want  only  those 
who  will  serve  the  truth  and  honor  themselves,  —  not  those 
who  will  fail  in  either  of  these  respects.  For  this  reason,  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  the  present  tendency  of  feeling  and  re- 
quirement will  go  on,  more  and  more  elevating  the  standard 
of  our  ministry  and  the  indispensable  conditions  of  entrance 
into  it.  Ours  is  a  great  cause,  destined,  if  there  be  not  un- 
pardonable blundering  or  unfaithfulness  somewhere,  to  be 
the  leading  religious  movement  of  the  world.  God  calls  us 
to  see  that  it  is  not  intrusted  to  the  keeping  of  little  or  in- 
competent hands.     There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  our 


202  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

Church,  as  in  the  history  of  most  churches,  and  of  Chris- 
tianity itself,  when  "  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  were 
chosen  to  confound  the  wise,  and  the  weak  things  to  con- 
found the  mighty,  and  base  things,  and  things  despised,  and 
things  that  were  not,  to  bring  to  naught  things  that  were." 
There  seems  to  be  a  time  in  all  such  great  reforms  and  spirit- 
ual awakenings  when  God's  word  is  to  them  as  of  old  to  Ze- 
rubbabel,  "  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  SjDirit, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  But  though  such  may  be  their  be- 
ginnings, if  they  are  to  proceed  and  to  triumph,  they  must, 
while  none  the  less  invoking  the  Spirit  of  God,  enlist  quite 
other,  and  more  effective,  human  instruments.  Christianity 
was  first  preached  by  fishermen  ;  but  what  would  it  now  be, 
had  it  been  preached  only  by  such  without  the  special  help 
that  was  given  them  ?  The  time  is  coming,  I  believe,  in  the 
subsidence  of  the  present  consuming  fever  of  worldliness, 
when  our  young  men  will  not  be  so  generally  enticed  as  now 
into  mammon  worship  and  the  secular  pursuits  and  profes- 
sions, and  when  the  pulpit  will  duly  assert  its  claims,  and  at- 
tract its  share  of  the  best  brain  and  heart.  Then  the  charac- 
ter and  influence  of  the  ministry  that  is  in  any  church  will  do 
much  to  attract  and  determine  the  ministry  which  shall  be ; 
and  if  we  desire  to  have  stout,  healthy,  thoroughly  furnished, 
magnetic  men  in  our  pulpits,  to  attract  and  mould  others 
like  them,  and  to  wield  a  power,  by  virtue  of  what  they  are, 
commensurate  with  the  grandeur  and  worth  of  the  truth 
they  have,  we  cannot  too  soon  begin  to  close  the  door 
against  all  who  are  not  such.  For  myself,  I  am  frank  to 
say,  taught  by  almost  forty  years'  observation  what  harm 
comes  to  a  church  so  far  as  it  has  ministers  who  are  not 
true  and  manly  men,  I  would  admit  no  moral  or  intellectual 
weakling  to  our  ministry  ;  no  stripling  in  years  ;  no  man  of 
infirm  will  or  vacillating  purpose ;  no  nerveless,  forceless, 
inoflensive  man,  destitute  of  energy,  pluck,  or  propelling 
power.  The  ministry  has  had  brave,  strong  men,  many  of 
them  ;  and  of  such,  as  has  been  intimated,  our  ministry  has 
had  its  fair  proportion.  But  there  has  been  altogether  too 
much  of  the  idea  that  any  '  pious '  or  goodish  young  man, 
without  vim  or  push,  shrinking  from  the  hard  battle  of  life, 
or  for  any  reason  unfitted  to  make  his  way  in  the  world  in 


OUR   MINISTRY.  203 

any  'more  practical  calling/  furnishes  good  enough  material 
for  tlie  ministry,  or  can  most  appropriately  dispose  of  him- 
self in  it.  It  is  time  that  this  idea  were  abandoned.  If  any 
profession  should  have  picked  men,  it  is  the  ministry  ;  and 
of  all  men,  the  minister  should  be  the  last  to  be  composed 
of  stuff  that  cannot  make  its  way  in  any  other  calling.  The 
best,  the  strongest,  the  most  energetic,  the  most  practically 
sagacious  minds  find  use  for  all  they  are,  or  can  be,  in  this 
work ;  and  this  is  becoming  every  year  more  and  more  the 
fact. 

And  insisting,  first,  on  the  qualities  thus  indicated  as  es- 
sential, I  would  —  because  taught  by  painful  experience 
what  penalties  one  incurs  by  entering  the  ministry  without 
due  training  —  equally  insist  that  no  man,  whatever  else  he 
may  be,  shall  receive  our  fellowship  without  at  least  a  full 
course  in  some  theological  school  with  a  first-class  curricu- 
lum, and  that  these  partial  courses,  which  give  so  many  the 
name  of  a  school  without  giving  them  what  the  school  is  de- 
signed to  insure,  must  be  forbidden,  and  wholly  cease.  The 
man  who  desires  to  be  a  minister  of  Christ  looks  to  an  office 
of  grave  importance,  especially  in  these  days  ;  and  he  should 
be  willing  to  pay  the  required  price  of  waiting  and  stud}^  to 
attain  it.  Having  paid  this  price,  he  can  do  more  in  ten 
years  than  he  can  in  twenty,  or  perhaps  in  a  whole  lifetime, 
if  he  "  climbs  up  some  other  way."  If  there  are  those  who 
cannot  pay  this  price,  let  them  be  content  to  be  lay  preach- 
ers, provisions  for  whom  are  now  made  among  us,  or  give 
up  the  ministry  altogether.  Better  a  small  ministry  tlian  a 
weak  or  an  incompetent  one  ;  and  better  for  any  man  that 
he  be  out  of  the  ministry,  in  some  honest  and  useful  calling, 
than  in  it  to  be  a  drone  or  a  cipher.  For  of  all  wrecks 
stranded  on  its  beaches,  not  occasioned  by  serious  moral  of- 
fences, what  wrecks  has  the  world  sadder,  more  useless,  or 
more  pitiable  than  those  of  men  who,  trying  to  be  ministers, 
•have  succeeded  only  in  being  —  nothing,  and  some  of  whom 
at  last  starve  on  the  undeserved  alms  which  they  beg  or 
sponge  from  the  church  they  have  never  really  served  ? 
Let  us,  for  our  part,  as  a  Church,  have  done  with  encour- 
aging-, cither  directly  or  by  toleration,  those  who  can  only 
be  such,     "  Put  none  but  Americans  on  guard  to-night,"  it 


204  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

used  to  be  said  Washington  once  ordered.  Is  it  too  much 
to  hope  that  the  time  is  coming'  when  it  will  be  one  of  the 
'  general  orders  '  of  our  Church,  that  none  but  those  prepared 
for  the  work  shall  be  put  into  the  watch-towers  of  our  Zion, 
and  when  to  say  that  a  man  is  a  Universalist  minister  will 
be  the  same  as  to  say,  that  whatever  he  may  be  physically, 
he  is  a  robust,  large-hearted,  vigorous-willed  man,  with  a 
masculine  brain,  thoroughly  equipped  for  doing  God's  work 
in  a  wise,  practical,  manly  way  ? 

But  this  is  the  least  important  side  of  the  subject.  Brain, 
and  force,  and  thorough  intellectual  and  theological  train- 
ing, indispensable  as  they  are,  avail  nothing  for  the  final 
purpose  of  the  ministry,  except  as  they  are  possessed  and 
sanctified  by  something  deeper  and  more  experimental.  This 
something  deeper  is  the  great  thing  after  all,  therefore  ;  and 
coming  now  to  this,  summing  up  many  particulars  in  the 
fewest  possible  general  statements,  there  are /our  requisites, 
without  any  one  of  which,  no  man  —  be  his  qualifications  in 
other  respects  what  they  may  —  should  find  it  henceforth 
possible  to  enter  our  ministry. 

I,  The  first  is  faith.  This  is  the  primary  thing  in  the 
order  of  a  distinctively  Christian  experience.  It  is  equally 
fundamental  among  the  conditions  of  Christian  usefulness. 
Christ  built  his  Church  on  the  rock  of  his  confessed  Messiah- 
ship.  Would  he  have  sent  out  men  to  be  his  ministers  who  did 
not  in  this  respect  build  with  him — who  denied  or  questioned 
what  he  so  affirmed  ?  Invariably  his  demand  was.  Believe, 
whether  he  was  about  to  perform  his  works  of  healing,  or  to 
induct  souls  into  his  kingdom.  And  sent  forth  on  this  basis 
of  Faith,  the  Apostles  enforced  the  same  demand.  The  bur- 
don  of  their  preaching,  and  of  the  whole  New  Testament  in 
this  regard  is  well  summed  up  in  Paul's  charge  to  the  Co- 
lossians  (ii.  6-8),  "As  ye  have  therefore  received  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord,  so  walk  ye  in  him,  rooted  and  built  up  in 
him,  and  stahlished  in  the  faith  as  ye  have  been  taught, 
abounding  therein  with  thanksgiving.  Beware  lest  any  man 
spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit,  after  the  tra- 
ditions of  men,  after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and  not 
after  Christ."     Our    Church  has  from  the  first  recognized 


OUR   MINISTRY.  205 

this  primal  necessity  of  faith,  and  alike  its  law  and  its  usage 
are  now  unmistakably  settled  on  this  point.  Both  for  min- 
isters and  organized  bodies,  "expressed  assent  to  the  Win- 
chester Confession  of  Faith"  is  "essential"  to  our  fellow- 
ship. Nor  is  there  the  remotest  probability  that  this  law 
will  ever  be  repealed.  The  believing  sentiment  among  us 
is  too  pronounced  and  universal  for  this.  Our  sole  danger 
in  this  respect  is,  that  through  a  loose  and  latitudinarian 
construction,  our  established  standards  may  be  made  of  none 
effect.  Those  familiar  with  our  affairs  need  not  be  told  that 
already,  in  some  instances,  these  standards  have  been  thus 
made  of  none  effect,  and  that  men  have  found  entrance  to 
our  ministry  alike  against  the  letter  and  spii'it  of  our  'Con- 
fession,' only  sooner  or  later  to  make  their  unbelief  mani- 
fest, and  to  become  elements  of  discord  and  occasions  of 
mischief  wherever  they  have  labored.  It  is  against  tliis  that 
we  need  to  guard.  Our  standards  are  right  and  sufficient. 
We  have  only  to  insist  that  they  be  honestly  construed. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  some  minds  are  so  constituted  that 
they  cannot  see  the  limits  to  which  all  general  axioms  are 
subject,  and  that,  laying  hold  of  any  such  axiom,  they  are 
sure  to  carry  it  to  extremes.  Only  on  this  account  could 
there  be  any  difference  of  opinion  among  sincere  and  thought- 
ful Christian  people  concerning  this  question  of  ministerial 
fellowship.  Starting  with  the  axiom  that  life,  as  a  ground 
of  confidence,'  is  more  than  opinion,  and  adding  to  it  the 
axiom  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  think  untrammelled  to' 
any  conclusion  to  which,  in  his  judgment,  truth  conducts 
him,  or  to  stop  short  of  any  conclusion  which  he  does  not 
see  reason  to  reach,  the  advocates  of  a  '  broad '  fellowship 
say,  How  can  you  require  any  good  man  to  believe  as  you 
do,  as  a  condition  to  your  fellowship,  without  overlooking 
the  greater  for  the  less,  or  without  infringing  upon  his  lib- 
erty as  a  thinker  ?  If  a  man's  life  is  right,  and  he  wishes 
to  work  with  you,  you  must  admit  him  to  your  fellowship, 
whatever  his  opinions.  The  number  of  such  extremists 
among  us  has  not  been  large.  The  atmosphere  of  our 
Church  has  never  proved  inviting  or  healthy  for  them.  But 
we  have  had  them,  nevertheless,  some  of  them  desiring  to 
sweep  away  our  '  Confession '  altogether,  and  all  of  them 


206  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

agreeing  that  it  is  gross  intolerance,  a  despicable  copying 
of  '  orthodox '  narrowness  and  bigotry,  to  insist  on  any  dif- 
ference between  faith  and  unbelief  as  a  ground  of  fellow- 
ship, if  one  but  calls  himself  a  Christian,  and  desires  admis- 
sion to  our  ministry.  Away  with  'heresy-hunting'!  has 
been  their  cry.  Let  us  be  '  broad  ' !  Let  us  be  '  liberal ' ! 
AVhat  if  a  man  does  not  fully  accept  our  standards  ?  Let 
him  be  true  to  himself.  His  advanced  thought  is  doubtless 
so  much  fresh  gold,  dug  from  the  mines  of  truth  without  re- 
gard to  authority  or  prescription.  Better  for  us,  perhaps, 
if  we  were  a  Church  without  any  doors  ;  but  since  we  have 
them,  ]fit  us  throw  them  open  wide  enough  to  admit  every 
earnest  soul,  and  all  who  can  be  induced  to  join  us,  without  in- 
quiring too  minutely  as  to  their  faith,  or  whether  they  accept 
the  'Confession'  just  as  it  was  meant  to  be  accepted  or  not. 
This  kind  of  talk  has  enough  of  the  sound  of  large 
and  generous  thinking  to  deceive  not  a  few  who  would  at 
once  repudiate  it,  were  it  not  for  this  superficial  seeming  of 
tolerance  and  magnanimity.  But  it  only  needs  to  be  emp- 
tied of  its  pretty  words,  and  to  be  regarded  with  reference 
to  its  substance,  to  be  seen  to  have  but  one  meaning,  and 
to  tend  to  but  one  result.  As  the  statement  of  a  general 
principle,  it  would  make  any  special  co-operation  on  the 
basis  of  common  convictions  or  sympathies  impossible ;  and 
as  a  programme  of  action  by  our  Church,  or  any  church,  it 
means  inevitable  disintegration  —  the  loss  of  Christian  dis- 
tinctness, and  the  consequent  loss  of  Christian  power.  Fel- 
lowship of  any  sort  necessarily  implies  some  ground  of  spe- 
cial sympathy  on  which  those  in  fellowship  stand  together ; 
and  if  it  is  no  infringement  of  the  liberty  of  personal  think- 
ing for  those  associated  in  scientific  pursuits  to  require  sci- 
entific tastes  and  sympathies  as  a  ground  of  their  scientific 
fellowship,  or  for  those  banded  for  some  philanthropic  pur- 
pose to  exclude  from  their  membership  those  indifferent  or 
opposed  to  the  objects  they  are  associated  to  serve,  how  or 
why  can  it  be  a  violation  of  any  law  of  courtesy,  or  of  any- 
body's rights  as  a  thinker,  to  insist  that  no  man  shall  be 
fcllowshipped  as  a  minister  of  Christ  unless  he  has  faith  in 
Christ  as  the  special  messenger  of  God,  and  sympathy'-  with 
the  ends  which,  in  God's  behalf,  he  is  seeking  to  accomplish  ? 


OUR   MINISTRY.  207 

An  association,  by  whatever  name  called,  would  be  but  a 
promiscuous  herd  of  people  destitute  of  any  common  thought 
or  aim,  if,  without  regard  to  its  purpose,  everybody  so  dis- 
posed, on  the  ground  that  he  is  a  decent  man,  could  demand 
admission  into  it ;  and  the  same  principle  applied  to  a 
church  M^ould  make  it  a  mockery  of  anj^thing  like  the  true 
church-idea,  robbing  Christian  fellowship  of  all  distinctive 
meaning,  and  the  ministry  of  everything  peculiar  to  it  as  the 
ministry  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Only  he,  clearly,  who, 
whatever  he  may  be  ready  to  say,  sincerely  accepts  the 
Bible  as  the  authoritative  record  of  God's  Word,  and  be- 
lieves in  Christ  as  Lord  and  Redeemer,  can  fitly  be  sent  out 
to  preach  truth  and  duty  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  and 
to  sum.mon  souls  to  that  faith  in  Christ  which  can  alone 
quicken  and  sanctify  them  unto  salvation.  As  well  might 
one  be  graduated  to  teach  mathematics  who  denies  the  mul- 
tiplication table,  or  to  practise  medicine,  believing  it  his 
business  to  poison  instead  of  to  cure. 

Equally  by  our  principles  and  our  traditions,  we  are  ir- 
revocably committed  to  liberty  of  opinion  and  the  largest 
right  of  free  inquiry.  No  people  are  more  thoroughly  per- 
vaded with  the  instinct  of  rebellion  against  all  that  would 
deny,  or  limit,  or  in  the  slightest  degree  trench  upon  this 
liberty  ;  nor,  under  any  circumstances,  can  we  be  otherwise 
than  tolerant  and  catholic  without  being  false  to  every  sug- 
gestion and  requirement  of  the  Gospel  as  we  receive  it. 
But  we  stand  also  —  we  always  have  stood  —  for  the  Bible, 
for  Christ  and  the  Divine  Authority  of  his  religion.  As  a 
branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  we  exist  solely  to  convert 
men  to  faith  in  him,  and  to  persuade  them  to  accept  and  fol- 
low him  as  Lord.  So  existing,  we  should  become  a  lie  the 
moment  we  should  lose  sight  of  this  purpose,  and  admit  to 
our  fellowship,  no  matter  on  what  pretext,  men  without 
faith  in  the  Bible,  or  in  Christ  as  the  Sent  of  God  ;  for  how 
could  such  men  convert  their  hearers  to  faith  in  Christ,  or 
plead  with  them  to  give  themselves  to  him  ?  Perceiving 
this,  we  have  always  discriminated  between  liberty  and  li- 
cense —  between  the  right  of  free  inquiry  and  the  right  to 
hold  infidel  opinions  under  a  garb  of  Christian  pretence.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  we  always  shall  make  this  distinction. 


208  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

Doing  so,  while  we  shall  maintain  the  right  of  unlimited 
freedom  of  interpretation  in  our  Church  on  the  basis  of  the 
Bible,  and  the  equal  right  of  all  Christians  to  undei'stand 
the  Bible  for  themselves,  we  shall  no  less  rigorously  main- 
tain that  any  who  cannot,  without  reserve,  build  on  this 
Christian  basis,  must  exercise  their  freedom  of  thought  and 
rights  of  conscience  outside  our  Christian  recognition. 
Unbelief,  infidelity  is  infidelity,  gloss  or  sugar-coat  it  as  we 
may.  Our  duty  is  to  treat  it  as  such,  in  whomsoever  it 
may  come  knocking  at  our  doors  ;  and  if  it  be  charged  that 
this  is  illiberality,  the  sufficient  reply  is,  in  the  words  of  the 
wise  and  catholic  Dr.  Ballon,  that  the  harm  is  "  not  in  call- 
ing things  by  their  right  names,  but  in  a  wrong  spirit 
towards  the  things  themselves.  We  may  be  very  illiberal 
in  our  treatment  of  one  whom  we  acknowledge  to  be  a 
Christian  ;  we  may  be  perfectly  liberal  in  our  relations  with 
those  whom  we  do  not  regard  as  Christians,  If  an  other- 
wise good  man  is,  in  point  of  fact,  not  a  believer,  in  the 
New  Testament  sense  of  the  term,  we  ought  to  say  so 
frankly  ;  and  then,  if  he  suffers  unjustly  on  Ihat  account,  it 
is  of  course  because  there  is  an  unjust  odium  against  the 
name  that  properly  belongs  to  him,  and  our  duty  is  to  re- 
move that  undue  prejudice, — not  to  violate  truth  by  striv- 
ing to  shelter  him  under  a  false  appellation."* 

This  is  the  position  of  a  practical  common  sense.  Occu- 
pying it,  we  limit  nobody.  We  hinder  nobody.  We  deny 
nobody's  rights.  We  withhold  our  hand  from  no  worthy 
man,  who,  as  a  worthy  man,  asks  our  recognition.  We 
simply  deal  with  things  as  they  are,  saying.  Our  Ghristiaii 
fellowship  has  a  distinctive  Christian  meaning,  and  can  be 
given  only  to  those  who  stand  by  faith  on  the  Christian 
foundation.  Any  other  position  can  be  occupied  by  us  only 
at  our  peril.  We  gain  nothing  when  we  admit  any  man  to 
our  ministry  who  does  not  put  himself  squarely  and  hon- 
estly on  our  Christian  platform.  Those  who  would  admit 
such  tell  us,  sometimes,  of  the  acquisitions  we  should  re- 
ceive, had  we  '  more  liberal '  terms  of  fellowship,  and 
admonish  us  to  think  how  much  we  are  losing  by  shutting 

*  Universalist  Quarterly,  Vol.  iii.  p.  387. 


OUR  MINISTRY.  209 

them  out.  But  such  losses  are  always  gains,  as  such  addi- 
tions are  weakness  instead  of  strength.  We  trifle  with 
momentous  interests,  and  place  much  at  hazard,  every  time 
we  experiment  with  such  a  man  ;  and  though  I  have  known 
rare  instances  in  which  young'  men  of  immature  and  unset- 
tled opinions,  with  decided  doubts  and  uncertainties  in- 
stead of  faith,  have  ripened  into  ministers  of  clear  thought, 
devoted  and  useful,  the  risk  of  putting  such  men  into  the 
pulpit  is  too  great,  the  proprieties  sacrificed  too  serious, 
and  the  answer  to  every  application  of  this  sort  should  be, 
Settle  your  own  faith  first,  before  asking  to  be  sent  out  as 
a  teacher  of  faith  to  others.  No  man,  indeed,  it  should  be 
held,  is  in  a  condition  even  to  think  towards  our  ministry, 
until,  as  Christ  asks  the  olden  question,  "Whom  say  ye 
that  I  am  ?  "  he  is  able,  in  full  assurance,  to  say  with  Peter, 
"Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  son  of  the  living  God;" — |'thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  As  a  matter  of  conviction, 
only  such  a  man  is  qualified  to  preach  Christ  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  edification  of  others  ;  and,  almost  as  impor- 
tant in  another  sense,  as  a  matter  of  moral  preparedness, 
only  such  a  man  has  the  faith  which  can  remove  mountains, 
and  so  give  the  vigor  and  earnestness,  the  courage  and 
persistence,  by  which  only  are  ministerial  success  and  vic- 
tory won. 

II.  Another  requisite  to  entrance  into  our  ministry  is  a 
personal  religious  experience.  Ordinarily,  one's  religion  is 
not  a  thing  for  him  to  talk  about,  and  one's  religious  experi- 
ence, if  he  has  had  any,  is  something  too  sacred,  as  between 
his  soul  and  God,  for  any  one  else  to  pry  into.  But,  as 
when  one  desires  to  assume  the  vows  of  church  membership, 
so  when  the  question  is,  Shall  this  man  be  a  minister  of 
Christ,  for  the  salvation  of  souls  ?  all  such  reserve  should 
cease.  A  personal,  spiritual  awakening,  a  profound  and 
mastering  religious  experience  is,  next  to  faith,  the  primary 
condition  of  ministerial  usefulness,  without  which  there  can 
be  no  such  feeling,  thinking,  preaching,  aim,  or  work  of  any 
sort,  as  the  office  demands.  Were  the  minister's  business 
simply  to  instruct,  the  case  would  be  different.  But  his 
grand  purpose  is,  not  to  instruct,  or  intellectually  to  con- 
vince. He  deals  with  themes  concerning  which  most  of 
14 


210  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

those  to  whom  he  speaks  are  already,  theoretically,  in  sub- 
stantial agreement  with  him.  Using  these  —  for  the  most 
part  —  conceded  truths,  his  business  is  to  arouse,  to  con- 
vert, to  stimulate,  to  bend  obstinate  knees  in  contrition 
before  the  cross,  and  so  to  lead  souls  to  Chi;ist,  consecrated 
to  God  in  the  Christian  life.  Everything  else  is  suboz'dinate 
to  this.  Christ  is  Teacher ;  but  he  is  something  more  :  is 
Teacher  only  that  he  may  be  Quickener  and  Inspirer.  So 
every  minister,  pleading  with  souls  in  his  name,  should  seek 
to  be.  But  how  can  he  impart  what  he  does  not  possess  ? 
How  quicken  others  if  he  has  never  himself  been  quick- 
ened ?  How  prostrate  other  knees  before  the  cross  if  his 
own  have  not  first  knelt  there  ?  How  help  his  hearers  into 
the  religious  life  if  he  is  not  himself  religious,  and  his  own 
soul  has  never  thrilled  with  the  fervors  and  the  indwelling 
power  which  he  is  the  medium  to  communicate  ? 

I  judge  no  man  ;  but  I  confess  that  it  strikes  me  as  quite 
out  of  the  line  of  all  natural  sequence  and  probability  to 
look  for  permanent  religious  fruit  from  one  with  whom  talk 
about  religion  is  simply  perfunctory  and  professional,  — 
never  spontaneous.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  me  reasonable 
that  any  church  is  likely  to  be  much  profited  by  ministers 
who  are  personally  never  en  rapport  with  the  deepest  and 
most  vital  themes  of  the  pulpit ;  who  care  only  to  deny  or 
to  argue,  or  who  would  rather  be  in  a  theatre  than  in  a 
conference  meeting,  or  whose  tastes  run  to  stale  jokes  and 
low  and  lewd  stories  rather  than  to  the  '  communion  of 
saints,'  or  to  converse  on  Gospel  themes ;  who  impress 
nobody  as  religious  men,  and  who  fail  to  diffuse  any  odor 
of  seriousness  or  consecration,  however  in  talking  they  may 
simulate  what  they  do  not  feel,  and  in  some  instances  even 
appear  to  be  the  means  of  producing  results  in  others 
which  have  never  been  produced  in  themselves.  The  law 
of  influence  is  subtile,  but  absolute.  According  to  what 
we  ai-e,  magnetic  currents  flow  from  us  ;  and  in  the  long 
run,  such  men,  however  eloquent  or  seemingly  in  earnest, 
seldom  give  out  anything  for  the  spiritual  help  of  anybody  ; 
are  found,  on  the  contrary,  usually,  to  lower  the  tone  of 
taste  and  character,  religiously,  of  all  with  whom  they  are 
brought  into  closest  association.  If  one  is  to  communicate, 
he  must  have. 


OUR  MINISTRY.  211 

"lie  is  a  well-meaning  brother,  of  good  ability,"  I  re- 
member to  have  once  heard  one  of  our  ministers  say  of 
another,  "  hut  he  has  never  experienced  religion.' '  Will  any 
one  say  that  this  was  '  the  right  man  in  the  right  place  '  ? 
The  remark  was  made  many  years  ago  ;  but  the  description, 
unfortunately,  is  precisely  that  which,  speaking  truthfully, 
would  have  to  be  given  of  many  a  minister  whom  I  have 
since  known  —  of  not  a  few  in  our  pulpits  as  of  some 
in  others ;  men  not  bad  in  any  sense  —  most  of  them 
meaning  well,  but  lacking  any  positive  affinity  with  religion, 
and  having  no  more  consciousness  of  what  it  is  as  an  experi- 
ence, or  as  a  pervading,  in-working  power,  than  the  heart 
of  an  iceberg  has  of  warmth,  or  than  the  calculating  brain 
of  a  mathematician  has  of  the  kindling  of  a  poet's  soul. 
And  a  human  beingmore  utterly  out  of  place  than  such  a 
minister,  who  can  find  ?  Put  a  man,  who  has  never  seen 
the  sea,  on  board  a  ship,  to  navigate  it  across  the  ocean,  — 
put  a  plough-boy,  who  knows  nothing  of  steam,  or  valves, 
in  charge  of  an  engine,  or  a  locomotive,  —  set  one  up  in 
business,  who  is  ignorant  of  accounts  and  has  no  idea 
of  bargains,  and  you  do  what  is  no  more  unreasonable, 
or  preposterous,  than  when  a  man  is  put  into  the  pulpit, 
who,  even  though  his  perceptions,  theoretically,  may  be 
clear,  and  his  convictions  intelligent  and  firm,  knows  noth- 
ing experimentally  of  the  religion  which  he  is  to  represent, 
or  of  its  quickening  and  saving  work. 

Only  a  little  while  ago,  I  heard  of  a  minister  who  —  I 
use  the  precise  words  reported  to  me  from  his  lips  —  gave 
this  account  of  his  entrance  into  the  ministry,  —  it  is  no 
concern  here  to  say  into  what  ministry:  "I  found  that  I 
had  the  gift  of  gab,  and  an  opportunity  to  go  to  a  theo- 
logical school  being  offered  me,  I  determined  to  make  my 
gift  available  in  that  direction."  "  But  had  you  no  religious 
experience,  no  impulse  to  prayer,  no  spirit  of  devotion  ?  " 
asked  the  friend  to  whom  the  statement  was  made.  "  None, 
whatever,"  was  the  frank  reply.  "At  least,  you  had  some 
positive  faith,  —  a  clear  assurance  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  a  firm  persuasion  as  to  the  soundness  of  what 
you  were  to  preach  ?  "  "  Nothing  of  the  kind,"  was  the 
rejoinder.     "  I  simply  knew  that  I  could  talk,  and  seeing  iu 


212  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

the  ministry  my  best  field  for  talk,  and  in  the  particular 
denomination  with  which  I  identified  myself  as  good  an 
opening  as  anywhere,  I  went  in.  That's  the  whole  of  it." 
"What  shall  we  say  of  a  man  who  Could  so  mock  all  the 
sacred  themes  with  which  he  was  to  deal  as  to  go  into  the 
ministry  in  the  state  of  mind,  and  from  the  motives,  thus 
confessed  ?  Or,  what  spiritual  future  can  there  be  for  any 
church  the  doors  of  whose  ministry  are  so  carelessly 
kept  as  to  j.-ender  it  possible  for  such  men  to  be  among 
its  ministers  ?  And  j^et,  we  have  had  such  ministers  as 
well  as  other  churches ;  and  those  of  us  most  familiar 
with  the  facts  would  be  able,  if  requii-ed,  to  put  our  fingers 
upon  the  names  of  some  such  occupying  our  pulpits  this 
very  day. 

It  is  time  that  the  entrance  of  any  more  such  —  at  least 
into  our  ministry,  should  cease.  If  it  is  needful  that  a 
candidate  be  examined  in  opinion,  or  in  literary  and  theo- 
logical acquirements,  why  not  as  to  spiritual  condjtion  and 
religious  preparedness  ?  Hitherto,  for  reasons  sufficiently 
set  forth  in  the  chapter  on  Experimental  Religion  and  pages 
preceding,  far  less  attention  has  been  given  among  fls  to 
this  experimental  element  of  Cliristian  power,  alike  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  the  pews,  than  was  for  our  good.  It  must  not 
be  so  in  the  time  to  come.  If  we  are  to  be  a  living  Chris- 
tian people,  doing  positive  Christian  work,  a  New  Departure 
in  this  respect,  as  I  trust  has  hereinbefore  been  made  appai-- 
ent,  is  indispensable.  And  if  there  is  to  be  such  a  New 
Departure  among  the  people,  it  must  begin  among  the 
ministers.  As  said  in  opening,  they  are  the  leaders.  If 
there  are  to  be  torches  carried,  their  hands  are  to  carry 
them.  If  there  are  coals  from  off  God's  altar  with  which 
we  are  to  be  set  aflame,  their  hearts  are  the  censers  in  which 
they  are  first  to  burn.  We  cannot  be  a  Church  pervaded 
with  religious  life  except  as  our  ministers  foster  and  impart 
it.  Thank  God  for  all  that  is  telling  of  an  increased  spirit- 
ual vitality  among  us  —  the  result  mainly,  under  God,  of 
what  spiritually-awakened  and  religious  ministers  have  been 
trying  to  do.  But  there  is  yet  great  opportunity  for  im- 
provement ;  and  if  this  improvement  is  to  bo  made,  our 
ministers  must  be  the  chief  iustruments  for  promoting  it. 


OUR  MINISTRY. 


213 


I  have  tried  to  show  that,  if  we  are  to  be  the  Church  we 
should  aim  to  be,  we  must  be  a  more  devout,  Bible-reading, 
praying,  consecrated  people  ;  but,  while  fully  recognizing 
all  that  individual  believers,  through  the  help  of  the  Bible 
and  the  quickenings  and  nutriment  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  have 
been  and  may  be  independent  of  ministerial  influence'  mak- 
ing their  own  way  upward  in  the  religious  life,  it  ia  not  too 
much  to  say,  speaking  of  ourselves  collectively,  that  we 
cannot  be  such  a  people  except  as  we  have  devout,  Bible- 
reading,  praying,  consecrated  ministers  :  ministers  glowing 
with  religious  fervor  ;  ministers  instinct  with  spiritual  life  ; 
ministers  knowing  within  themselves  what  it  is  to  be  bap- 
tized through  and  through  with  the  baptism  from  on  high, 
and,  like  Stephen  and  Barnabas,  '  good  men,  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith,'  giving  themselves  'continually 
to  prayer  and  to  the  ministry  of  the  word  ;  '  ministers  who 
live  with  their  hearts  close  to  Christ's,  in  the  atmosphere 
of  an  habitual  consciousness  of  God  and  in  sweet  and  holy 
nearness  to  him,  and  who  thus  become  channels  through 
which  the  life  of  God  may  flow  into  the  lives  of  those 
for  whom  they  labor. 

Let  me  not  be  suspected  of  urging  that  ministers  should 
be  other  than  fresh,  natural,  genial  men.     Whatever  those 
not  such  men  may  do  elsewhere,  only  those  who  are  such  can 
be  of  service  to  us.     We  have  no  room  for  ministers  who 
think  it  necessary  in  any  way  to  sink  the  man,  or  whose 
whole  stock  in  trade  is  the  cut  of  their  coats,  or  a  sanctimo- 
niousness   of  countenance.       We    want  no   cant;    no   pre- 
tence ;  no  sacerdotal  formalism  ;  no  priestly  airs,  or  austere 
aflectations  ;  no  assumptions  of  a  mystical  functionaryisra, 
as  if  a  minister  plus  his  office  weighs  a  single  iota  more 
than   he   weighs   by  virtue  of  what  he  is  as  a  man.     We 
want  no  whining  ;   no  stiff,  strait-laced,  long-faced  pietism  ; 
no  fossilized  acidity  that  reckons  it  the  chief  end  of  religion 
to  suppress  every  mirthful  emotion,  calling  the  world  mean- 
while to  take  note  how  devout  it  is,  or  tragically  clasping 
its  hands  and  turning  up  its  eyes,  and  groaning  0  !  at  the 
folly  or  the  wickedness  it  is  compelled  to  witness.     Thought- 
ful people  sickened  of  this  long  ago ;  and  of  all  Christians, 
we,  with  our  humane,  sensible,  cheerful  faith,  should  revolt 


214  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

from  it  with  the  most  utter  disgust.  Religion  is  genuine 
manliness,  —  a  real,  heart}^  healthy  spiritual  life  ;  and  what 
we  want  in  our  ministry,  first  of  all,  is  men  —  full-blooded, 
wholesome,  hearty,  sympathetic  men,  alive  in  every  human 
fibre  and  faculty,  willing  to  pass  for  just  what  they  are 
worth,  neither  pedants  nor  pharisees,  and  able  to  see  and 
enjoy  all  there  is  in  life,  in  a  large,  free,  wise  understanding 
of  what  God  intended  our  human  life  to  be.  But  no  matter 
how  wholesome,  hearty,  or  sympathetic  a  man  may  be  in 
other  respects,  he  has  no  fitness  for  the  ministry,  and  can 
be  in  no  proper  sense  useful  in  it,  except  as  his  '  life  is  hid 
with  Christ  in  God.'  The  more  of  a  man  he  is,  and  the 
fuller  he  is  of  all  human  juices,  the  better ;  but  he  must  be 
sanctified  to  the  core.  Every  beat  of  his  heart  should  be  a 
thought  of  God  and  a  prayer.  Conscious  of  the  Unseen  and 
the  Imperishable,  his  whole  being  should  be  flooded  from 
above  ;  and  centred  on  God,  having  his  '  conversation  in 
heaven,'  his  character  should  be  saturated  with  religious 
sensibility  and  purpose,  and  every  wish  and  thought  should 
be  keyed  to  the  Divine.  Only  such  a  man  is  really  in 
sympathy  with  the  minister's  work,  or  is  likely  to  be  of 
service  in  the  minister's  office. 

Has  not  the  time  fully  come  for  us  to  commit  ourselves  to 
this  position,  and  to  show,  by  what  we  exact  for  entrance 
into  our  ministry,  that  we  intend  to  maintain  it  ?  No  matter 
how  brilliant,  well-informed,  or  apparently  promising  in 
other  respects,  no  man  should  henceforth  find  the  door  into 
our  ministry  open  to  him,  under  any  circumstances,  or 
through  any  influence,  except  as  it  is  made  satisfactorily  to 
appear  that  he  is,  experimentally  and  thoroughly,  a  reli- 
gious man.  Talent,  eloquence,  learning,  readiness  of  utter- 
ance, all  these  are  desirable,  and,  when  consecrated,  are 
means  of  power.  But  personal  religion  alone  infuses  into 
them  the  element  by  which  they  can  be  made  efiective  for 
the  spiritual  quickening  and  salvation  of  souls ;  and  what 
use,  finally,  have  we,  or  has  any  church,  for  ministers  except 
for  these  ends  ? 

III.  Still  another  requisite  for  entrance  into  our  ministry 
should  be  a  hearty  confession  of  obligation  to  co-operate  in  our 
Church-work.     The  Report  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  our 


OUR  MINISTRY.  215 

General  Convention  for  1872  contained  a  statement  of  pain- 
ful significance.  Speaking  of  various  causes  accounting  for 
our  failure  to  realize  the  sum  voted  by  the  Convention  dur- 
ing the  year,  the  Trustees  say,  "  But  after  due  allowance 
has  been  made  for  extraordinary  events  unfavorable  to  our 
work,  the  fact  remains  that,  with  some  honorable  excep- 
tions, we  have  lacked  the  hearty  co-operation  of  our  clergy 
—  a  co-operation  without  which  no  church-enterprise  can 
succeed,  and  with  which,  freely  given  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  the  Special  Fund  could  have  been  easily  raised." 
The  painful  significance  of  this  statement  is  in  the  fact  that 
it  discloses  a  chronic  lack  among  us,  from  wliich  we  are 
widely  and  very  seriously  sufl'ering.  More  than  on  any 
other  single  account,  our  denominational  work  fails  to  be 
done  as  we  have  the  abundant  resources  to  do  it,  solely 
because  so  many  of  our  ministers  refuse  or  neglect  to  put 
themselves  into  sympathetic  accord  with  our  plans  and 
efforts,  as  alike  their  Christian  vows  and  their  denominational 
obligations  require.  This  may  seem  a  sweeping  assertion. 
I  mean  it  to  be  so.  It  is  time  that  the  truth  on  this  point 
should  be  fully  told,  to  arrest  the  attention  and  stir  to  the 
action  it  calls  for  ;  and  I  desire  to  emphasize  the  statement 
just  made,  as  one  intended  to  affirm  all  that  the  language 
seems  to  convey.  It  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  have  peculiar 
occasion  to  know  whereof  I  affirm  touching  this  subject. 
During  the  past  thirty  years,  I  have  been  intimately  associ- 
ated with  our  Church  activities  in  four  different  States,  and 
I  have  also  held  similar  relations  to  our  general  work  from 
the  hour  it  was  begun.  And  from  first  to  last,  wherever  I 
have  been,  whatever  the  effort  in  hand,  the  one  thing  most 
in  our  way,  the  one  incubus  which  it  has  been  found  most 
impossible  to  lift,  or  remove,  has  been  the  indifference,  the 
inertia,  the  irresponsiveness  of  our  ministers.  Noble  excep- 
tions there  have  been,  as  the  Board  of  Trustees  testified  of 
the  year  of  which  they  spoke  —  in  the  aggregate,  many  of 
them.  But  the  rule  has  been,  on  one  plea  or  another,  in- 
ertia, unconcern,  inaction,  thwarting,  hindering,  enfeebling 
what  has  been  undertaken,  — in  not  a  few  instances,  causing 
what  might  have  been  a  gratifying  success  to  end  in  mor- 
tifying   failure.     And  the  testimony  I  am  thus  compelled 


21^  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

to  give  in  respect  to  the  fields  and  efforts  with  which  I 
have  been  familial",  is,  I  am  confident,  in  substance,  precise- 
ly that  which  will  be  given  by  those  in  like  relations  else- 
where. 

Various  explanations  of  this  state  of  things  suggest  them- 
selves—  explanations  which  enable  us  to  see  how  men  may 
be  thus  at  fault,  and  yet  be  in  the  main  good  men,  as 
the  most  of  our  ministers  have  been  and  are  ;  but  explana- 
tions, or  no  explanations,  what  has  thus  wrought  so  much 
to  our  injury,  and  what  is  still  so  weakening  and  hindering 
us,  must  henceforward  cease,  or  our  fate  is  sealed.  Sad 
and  instructive  demonstration  was  more  than  once  furnished 
by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  of  what  an  army,  however  ex- 
cellent or  otherwise  well-appointed,  is  likely  to  accomplish 
if  ofiicered  by  men  without  loyalty  to  those  in  command, 
and  therefore  indisposed  to  enter  heartily  into  their  plans. 
And  what  is  true  in  this  regard  of  an  ai'my  thus  officered,  is 
equally  true  of  a  church  whose  ministers  have  no  sympathy 
with  the  work  it  proposes.  The  chief  explanation  of  the  vigor 
and  growth  of  the  Methodist  Church  is  in  the  fact  that  it  is 
organized  on  the  principle  that  every  minister  in  its  connec- 
tion not  only  owes  it  allegiance,  but  is  formally  and  sacred- 
ly pledged  to  loyalty  and  co-operation  in  its  service,  render- 
ing himself  liable  to  discipline  and  susjjension  if  he  fails  to 
keep  this  pledge.  The  same  thing,  after  some  form,  is  true 
of  every  church  that  has  ever  made  itself  a  religious  power. 
Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  there  is  success  for  us  on  any 
other  terms  ?  Its  ministers  are  the  propelling,  executive 
forces  of  every  church  ;  and  it  is  the  testimony  alike  of  all 
observation  and  of  all  experience  that  as  are  the  ministers 
so  is  the  church.  In  respect  to  the  highest  religious  plead- 
ings and  appeals,  it  must  be  confessed,  the  most  earnest 
ministers  not  unfrequently  find  many  of  their  people  much 
too  impervious  and  irresponsive.  But  in  all  matters  of  de- 
nominational interest  and  church-work,  the  temper  of  the 
minister  usually  determines  that  of  the  people  ;  and  if,  feel- 
ing right  and  working  faithfully,  ministers  will  wisely  lead, 
the  people  will  follow.  There  are  occasional  exceptions  ; 
but  the  rule  is  that  a  live  minister  makes  a  live  people,  and 
that  a  dead  or  indifferent  minister  makes  a  people  like  him- 


OUR  MINISTRY.  217 

self.  Under  God,  therefore,  it  rests  with  our  ministers  to 
determine  whether  we  are  to  be  a  live,  enterprising,  grow- 
ing Church,  or  the  contrary  ;  and  if  our  work  lags,  or  fails, 
—  if  our  appointed  collections  are  neglected,  or,  if  taken, 
are  small  and  unappreciative,  compared  with  what  they 
should  be, — if  our  statistical  reports  are  neglected, — if 
our  Convention  and  its  plans  get  no  thought  or  sympathy, 
and  the  Church  is  the  object  of  no  loving  loyalty,  or  gener- 
ous consideration,  the  fault  will,  mainly,  be  theirs. 

One  thing  is  certain  :  If  as  a  Church  we  have  any  right 
to  be,  there  is  something  for  us  to  do,  —  a  constantly  en- 
larging work  of  teaching,  building,  and  church  extension  to 
which,  according  to  our  growth  and  the  increase  of  our  re- 
sources, we  are  summoned  of  God  to  address  ourselves. 
We  claim  to  have  God's  truth.  If  we  have,  no  words  can 
exaggerate  the  greatness  of  the  trust,  or  the  seriousness  of 
our  responsibilities.  We  have  it  for  no  mere  purpose  of 
theory  or  sentiment.  Christ  did  not  come  that  he  might 
give  men  something  to  believe  or  argue  about.  We  have  it 
as  the  stewards  of  God,  that  '  in  Christ's  stead,'  we  may 
proclaim  it,  and  help  on  the  triumphs  of  God's  kingdom  and 
the  redemption  of  our  race.  We  are  no  Church  of  Christ  if 
the  consciousness  of  such  a  work  does  not  possess  us. 
And  if  we  have  such  a  work,  how  is  it  to  be  done  ?  —  how, 
except  as  every  one  bearing  our  name  catches  something  of 
the  impulse  to  help  it  on  ?  —  how,  especially,  except  as 
every  minister  who  seeks  our  fellowship  counts  it  his  duty 
to  enlist  in  it,  and,  to  the  extent  of  his  ability,  to  push  it  for- 
ward ?  I  may  have  extreme,  and  therefore  unsound,  views  ; 
but  on  any  theory  of  morals,  or  of  the  fitness  of  things, 
which  I  find  it  possible  to  hold,  it  seems  to  me  the  most  un- 
pardonable trifling  for  any  man  to  ask  our  fellowship  as  a 
minister,  and  then  coolly  to  assume  that  he  owes  our  Church 
no  loyalty  or  service,  and  that  he  has  the  right  to  treat  with 
utter  indifference  all  the  denominational  enterprises  that  are 
soliciting  his  furtherance  and  co-operation.  For  what  end 
do  denominations,  with  their  fellowship,  exist  except  that 
they  may  undertake  and  the  better  accomplish  such  enter- 
prises ?  And  why  should  any  one  seek  identification  with 
us  in  form,  unless  he   is  ready  heartily  to  identify  himself 


218  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

with  us  in  spirit,  and  in  all  that,  in  Christ's  name,  we  are 
trying  to  do  ? 

The  question  of  sects  or  churches  is  simply  a  question 
of  instruments.  No  wise  man  loves  any  organization,  be 
it  a  sect,  a  church,  or  whatever  else,  for  itself — only  for 
what  it  represents,  and  for  its  uses.  The  obligation  to  labor 
for  the  truth  being  conceded,  the  obligation  to  employ  the 
best  means  for  its  service  follows  of  course  ;  and  on  the 
same  principle  upon  which  associated  action  in  every  other 
department  of  life  is  found  to  be  most  effective,  a  sect,  or 
church,  is  proved  to  be  not  only  a  moral  necessity  if  men 
have  any  positiveness  of  conviction  and  purpose,  but  the 
best  means  for  religious  work.  As  such  a  means,  it  has 
imperative  claims,  by  so  much  as  the  truth  itself  has  any 
claims,  on  every  one  in  sympathy  with  the  ideas  it  repre- 
sents ;  and  whoever,  so  sympathizing  with  it,  fails  to  unite 
with  and  support  it,  —  above  all,  whoever  connects  himself 
with  it  and  then  declines  or  neglects  to  do  what  he  can  to 
make  it  a  power,  fails  to  be  either  consistent  or  faithful, 
and  incurs  guilt  accordingly. 

The  world  is  wide,  and  no  man  is  compelled  to  ask  our 
fellowship.  But  choosing  to  ask  it,  it  can  be  honestly,  or 
honorably,  accepted  only  as,  in  good  faith,  all  the  respon- 
sibilities and  obligations  which  it  implies  are  accepted  with 
it  —  alike  those  specially  denominational  as  well  as  those 
in  a  more  general  sense  called  Christian.  In  such  a  case, 
denominational  duties  become  Christian  duties.  Nor,  though 
there  are  very  good  men  who  do  it,  can  I  conceive  of  con- 
duct more  flagrantly  violating  every  principle  of  manly  deal- 
ing than  that  of  which  those  are  guilt}'',  who  seek  and  take 
our  fellowship  only  to  be  oblivious  to  every  such  duty. 
There  are  two  classes  who  do  this  :  —  on  the  one  hand, 
those  who  seem  to  think  that  they  confer  a  favor  upon  us 
by  patronizing  us  with  their  presence  and  consenting  to 
occupy  our  pulpits,  and  that,  doing  so  much,  they  are  at 
liberty  to  hold  themselves  haughtily  or  contemptuously 
aloof  from  all  our  plans,  as  if  such  things  could  be  no  con- 
cern of  theirs  ;  —  on  the  other  hand,  those  who  lazily  count 
it  enough  not  to  render  themselves  liable  to  discipline  for 
what  i§  called  immoral  conduct,  and  who  thereupon  pocket 


OUR  MINISTRY.  219 

the  money  for  preaching  in  positions  to  which  our  fellow- 
ship has  introduced  them,  apparently  with  not  the  most  dis- 
tant thought  that  they  owe  it  to  themselves,  or  to  us  to 
speak  a  word  or  lift  a  finger,  ia  behalf  of  anything  we  are 
doing  Ready,  and  usually  eager,  to  avail  themselves  of  all 
the  advantages  of  denominational  association,  both  these 
classes  are  alike  dead  to  all  sense  of  denominational  oblio-a- 
tion,  and  act  as  if  churches  existed  merely  to  serve  their 
personal  convenience. 

Have  we  not  suffered,  are  we  not  suffering  enough  on 
account  of  such  ministers  ?  Do  we  desire  any  more  such  ? 
Are  we  willing  that  any  more  shall  find  their  way  among 
us,  to  hinder,  weaken  and  discourage  us  ?  If  not,  should 
"7  "°V^  '°'^"^  ^^^'^  measures  to  insure  that  only  those 
of  a  different  spirit  and  purpose  shall  henceforth  receive  our 
fellowship  ?  It  IS  one  of  the  fundamental  statutes  of  our 
slXo  .  f  'i'"^'?  clergyman  applying  for  fellowship 
sal  be  understood  as  thereby  pledging  a  due  observance  of 
all  the  laws  of  the  Convention."  Here  is  the  provision  suffi- 
cient, ^fd"Iy  enforced,  for  all  that  is  demanded.  Shall  it 
be  so  enforced  ?     What  but  comparative  feebleness  and  fail- 

riil^'.h   T  "'      V  ^"'  •      ^'  ''  ^''^^^  f°r  "«  to  neglect 
alike  the  lessons  of  our  own  experience,  and  the  sugges- 
tions tliat  come  to  us  from  the  growth   and  prosperity  of 
others  ?     Why  should  we  not  for  the  upbuilding  and  exten- 
sion of  the  kingdom  of  truth,  avail  ourselves  of  laws  and 
principles  which  have  been  found  so  effective  for  the  further- 
ance of  error  ?     It  is  often  said,  when  the  lessons  from  other 
churches  in  this  particular  are  referred  to,  that  the  genius 
of  our  Church  is  unlike  that  of  those  representing  a  severer 
theology,  and  that  we  are  not  to  be  brought  to  the  accept- 
ance of  such  principles  of  responsibility  as  they  adopt.    Is  it 
so  ?     Certainly   the  genius  of  our  Church,  theologically,  is 
different  from  that  of  these  other  churches  ;  but  is  it  there- 
fore dilferent  in  respect  to  the  wisest  and  most  practical 
ways  of  compassing  essential  church-ends  ?     If  it  is    and 
we  really  cannot  be  brought  to  accept  the  principles  and  to 
comply  with  the  conditions  upon  which,   in  the  nature  of 
things,  success  depends,  then  there  is  no  future  for  us  as 
a  Church,  and   our  errand  is  fulfilled.     But  this,  I  trust 


220  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

none  of  us  believe.  It  used  to  be  said  that  we  never  could 
be  organized  in  any  compact  and  positive  form.  We  have 
disproved  that.  We  shall,  I  hope,  equally  disprove  the  as- 
sumption that  the  genius  of  our  Church  is  so  loose  and  law- 
less that  we  cannot  be  induced  to  adopt  the  principle  that 
there  is  such  an  obligation  as  denominational  fealty,  and 
that  ministers  who  have  sought  our  fellowship  are  bound  to 
enlist  in  our  Church-work,  and  must  be  duly  dealt  with  as 
unfaithful  if  they  do  not.  At  all  events,  it  is  only  as  we 
proceed  upon  this  principle  that  the  Universalist  Church 
can  fulfil  the  destiny  to  which  it  is  invited.  It  is  for  us  to 
Bay  whether  we  will  perceive  tlie  necessity  thus  laid  upon 
us,  and  shape  our  requirements  accordingly  ;  nor  can  I  fail 
to  add  that  our  theological  schools  will  not,  in  my  judgment, 
do  their  whole  duty  in  the  way  of  Ministerial  Education,  and 
send  forth  ministers  prepared  for  the  best  service,  until  they 
shall  have  Chairs  specially  charged  to  train  young  men  to  a 
proper  estimate  of  obligation,  and  to  a  familiarity  with  the 
best  methods,  in  this  regard. 

IV.  The  final  requisite  to  be  now  mentioned  for  entrance 
hereafter  into  our  ministry  is  a  chivalrous  sinking  of  self  in 
consecration  to  Christ  and  (he  Church.  A  sorrowful  illustra- 
tion was  given  me,  a  year  or  two  since,  of  the  spirit  in 
which  some  young  men  are  entering  the  ministry.  Talking 
with  a  theological  student,  I  inquired  about  his  classmates 
and  others,  and  received  this  reply:  "There  isn't  a  man 
in  the  class  who  isn't  good  for  two  thousand  dollars  when 
he  gets  through  !  "  I  inwardly  exclaimed,  God  help  the 
church  of  which  they  are  to  be  ministers,  if  this  is  what  all 
the  class  are  thinking  of,  and  did  not  continue  the  conver- 
sation. Does  it  need  to  be  said  that  any  such  mercenari- 
ness  of  motive  totally  unfits  one  for  the  ministry  ?  In  its 
very  nature,  the  ministry  is  necessarily,  in  some  sort,  a  re- 
nunciation of  self,  and  all  mere  self-seeking.  Ordinarily, 
indeed,  the  rule  is,  as  Paul  well  states  it,  "  that  they  which 
preach  the  Gospel  should  live  of  the  Gospel ;  "  and,  except 
under  peculiar  circumstances,  no  man  is  justified  in  continu- 
ing in  the  ministry  unless  he  can  realize  enough  from  his 
labors  to  keep  himself  and  his  family  above  want:  for  "  if 
any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for  those  of  his 


OUR  MINISTRY.  221 

own  housG,  ho  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an 
infidel."  But,  while  one  is  warranted  in  duly  kee{)ing^  this 
obligation  in  mind,  and  cannot  ordinarily  be  warranted  in 
failing  so  to  keep  it  in  mind,  the  true  minister,  as  he  con- 
templates his  work,  never  stops  to  consider  how  much  he 
is  to  get  for  it.  Impressed  with  the  supreme  importance  of 
spiritual  things,  and  filled  with  a  desire  to  devote  his  life  to 
them,  he  finds  himself,  by  an  irresistible  impulse,  precipi- 
tated into  the  ministry.  No  thought  of  place  or  pay  occu- 
pies him.  His  thought  is  only  of  God  and  Christ  and  souls. 
A  sense  alike  of  duty  and  of  privilege  possesses  and  propels 
him.  Paul  admirably  tells  the  story:  "Necessity  is  laid 
upon  me ;  yea,  woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel." 
This  is  the  real  call  to  the  ministry ;  and  without  this  call, 
it  is  sacrilege  for  any  man  even  to  look  towards  the  office 
—  as  if  it  were  a  mere  profession  or  trade,  to  be  chosen,  as 
other  pursuits  may  be,  with  reference  to  the  position  or 
'  salary '  it  will  give.  Only  as  one  forgets  every  worldly 
advantage,  in  a  willingness  to  relinquish  all  for  Christ's  sake 
and  the  Gospel's,  is  he  in  a  condition  to  debate  whether  he 
will  be  a  minister  of  the  cross. 

And  this  surrender  of  every  worldly  and  secular  ambition, 
in  a  relinquishment  of  all  thought  of  wealth  and  place  and 
the  right  to  pursue  them,  does  but  indicate  what  is  involved 
in  the  nature  of  the  ministry  as  a  renunciation  of  every  ele- 
ment of  a  mere  self-assertion.  Self,  as  a  ruling  force,  has 
no  rightful  place  in  the  minister's  life.  To  minister  means 
to  serve;  and  in  the  very  act  of  becoming  a  minister,  one 
at  all  conscious  of  what  he  is  doing  consecrates  himself  to 
service,  abdicating  all  right  to  consider  himself,  or  his  own 
ease,  or  his  own  will,  and  pledging  that  he  will  think  only, 
or  most,  of  God  and  Christ  and  those  interests  whose  ser- 
vant henceforth  he  is.  Whoever  becomes  a  soldier  merges 
his  whole  selfhood  into  his  duty  as  a  soldier  —  to  go  whei-e, 
to  do  what,  to  die  when,  the  word  of  legitimate  command 
may  direct  or  require.  In  like  manner,  every  minister,  so 
far  as  he  is  a  true  minister,  merges  himself  in  Christ  and  the 
Church,  and  the  service  to  which  he  is  pledged  —  as  of  old 
every  knight  lost  his  own  will  in  that  of  the  lady  whose 
plume  he  bore.     /  am  nothing, — Christ  and  his  cause  are 


222  Oim  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

everything,  is  the  feeling  that  becomes  uppermost  in  every 
heart  that  has,  with  any  earnestness  or  sincerity,  dedicated 
itself  to  the  minister's  work.  It  is  the  heroic  spirit  that 
is  demanded  ;  and,  on  this  account,  every  man  fitted  to  be 
a  minister  is  to  this  extent  a  hero. 

This  heroism,  this  utter  abnegation  of  self,  is  the  one 
lesson  of  Christ's  life  and  cross,  as  it  is  of  the  life  of  every 
Apostle.  Our  Lord's  thought  never  was  of  himself,  or  of 
his  personal  preferences  or  ends,  but  always  of  the  Gospel 
and  of  human  help  and  salvation  ;  and  Paul's  chivalrous 
utterance  —  in  which  spoke  the  spirit  of  all  the  Apostles  — 
was,  "  Neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I 
might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  which  I 
have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God."  They  all  lost  themselves  in  their  work. 
Why  should  not  we  lose  ourselves  as  entirely  in  the  same 
work  ?  If  we  have  the  same  Gospel,  can  it  demand  less  of 
us  than  it  did  of  them  ?  Are  not  the  same  interests  con- 
cerned ?  Do  not  the  same  motives  appeal  to  us  ?  Have 
we  not  the  sUme  ends  to  further  ?  And  if  they  only  did 
their  duty  in  all  their  earnestness,  their  selfrenunciation, 
their  willingness  to  sacrifice,  and  their  entire  identification 
of  themselves  with  whatever  could  save  souls  and  advance 
their  cause,  how  can  we  do  ours  except  as  we  emulate  their 
example  in  a  forgetfulness  of  self  and  of  all  selfaims  and 
theories,  in  a  consecration  to  our  work,  in  an  enthusiasm  for 
our  Church,  and  in  an  esprit  de  corps  for  our  appointed  plans 
and  methods,  that  shall  knit  all  our  hearts  into  one,  make 
everything  else  except  our  love  and  reverence  for  God  sec- 
ondary, and  commit  us,  soul  and  body,  in  solid  phalanx,  to 
whatever  may  be  needful  to  give  strength,  unity  and  power 
to  our  Church,  and  thus  to  make  it  most  effective  as  a  Chris- 
tian instrumentality  in  the  world  ? 

No  man  should  sacrifice  his  manhood,  or  renounce  his 
self-respect,  or  sink  himself  into  an  echo  or  a  tool,  for  any- 
body, or  any  cause.  With  such  sacrifices  God  is  not  well 
pleased  ;  and,  if  they  are  ever  asked  of  us,  we  may  be  sure 
that  whoever  or  whatever  requires  them  is  not  of  Ilim.  Nor 
are  such  sacrifices  needful  for  the  church  enthusiasm,  or  the 
denominational  esprit  de  corps,  here  insisted  upon.     All  that 


OUR  MINISTRY.  223 

is  enjoined  is  a  becoming  subordination  of  self  in  allegiance 
to  what  is  grander  and  more  important,  and  simple  earnest- 
ness and  loyalty  in  honest  and  manly  devotion  to  the  cause 
which  we  profess  to  believe  is  the  cause  of  truth  and  God. 
Is  this  too  much  to  ask  of  any  man  ? 

Does  some  one  say,  I  want  to  be  large-minded  and  free, 
and  such  a  devotion  to  any  particular  church  narrows  our 
sympathies,  and  renders  a  broad,  free,  catholic  spirit  impos- 
sible ?  The  most  obvious  reply,  were  we  compelled  to  con- 
cede the  narrowing  thus  affirmed,  would  be.  Why,  then, 
seek  to  connect  yourself  with  any  particular  church  ?  But 
the  better  reply  is,  a  denial  of  the  affirmation.  For  how  or 
why  does  a  love  for  the  church  that  best  embodies  his  con- 
victions hinder  a  man  from  being,  in  freedom  or  largeness  of 
sympathy,  all  that  any  earnest  and  honest  man  need  to 
desire  ?  May  not  one  love  his  country,  and  yet  have  room 
in  his  heart  for  a  comprehensive  sympatliy  with  all  man- 
kind ?  May  he  not  be  a  member  of  a  family,  faithful  to 
every  family  duty,  and  yet  be  true  to  every  broader  relation  ? 
Why,  then,  may  he  not  be  consecrated  to  his  church,  ardently 
seeking  its  extension  and  welfare,  and  at  the  same  time  be 
no  whit  less  in  breadth  and  catholicity  as  a  large-hearted, 
independent,  Christian  man  ?  The  verdict  of  experience  is 
that  he  can  be.  Altogether  too  much  sectarian  exclusive- 
ness  and  bigotry,  we  have  to  confess,  there  has  been,  dis- 
honoring the  Gospel,  and  fractionalizing  and  weakening  the 
Church.  But  among  the  finest  things  in  history  —  not  sec- 
ond to  any  valor  or  sacrifice  of  heroes  and  patriots  in  the 
struggles  of  civil  strife  —  are  the  records  of  those,  of  all 
names  and  forms  of  faitli,  who,  while  cultivating  the  kindly 
spirit  of  the  Master,  and  according  generous  regard  and 
recognition  to  all,  have  nevertheless,  for  the  love  of  Christ 
and  in  the  service  of  their  own  dear  church,  counted  all  pre- 
cious things  worthless,  giving  up  home  and  friends,  welcom- 
ing danger,  enduring  persecution,  and  facing  death  itself, 
that  they  might  convert  souls,  and  extend  what  they  have 
believed  to  be  the  truth. 

The  esprit  cle  corps  and  enthusiasm  for  our  Church  which 
I  plead  may  henceforth  be  made  indispensable  for  entrance 
into  our  ministry  only  require  that  we   shall,  in   our  turn, 


224  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

illustrate  what  all  such,  in  their  place,  have  shown  to  be 
possible.  In  no  way  narrowed,  duly  respecting  ourselves, 
and  with  hearts  full  of  a  generous  sympathy  with  every 
earnest  effort  to  serve  God  and  do  good  to  man,  we  are 
to  catch  the  baptism  of  their  spirit  —  the  spirit  of  Christ 
and  of  all  the  saints  and  martyrs  who  have  lived  and  died 
for  his  sake,  in  a  determined  and  self-forgetful  zeal  for  our 
Church,  which  will  render  us  willing  to  go  anywhere,  which 
will  count  no  labor  too  exhausting  and  no  sacrifice  too 
great,  if  we  can  thus  increase  its  vitality,  widen  its  field  of 
influence  and  augment  its  power.  See  what  this  zeal  for 
Christ  and  this  devotion  to  their  Church  are  doing  for  oth- 
ers !  —  for  the  Romanists,  for  the  Methodists,  for  every 
church  thus  served,  as  men  of  ability  and  culture  and  del- 
icately reared  women,  no  less  than  men  of  coarser  grain 
and  lower  attainments,  sever  every  domestic  tie  and  turn 
their  backs  on  all  the  attractions  of  cultivated  society  and 
desirable  position  and  pleasant  surroundings  —  often  taking 
their  lives  in  their  hands,  to  go  forth  among  the  rude,  the 
poor,  the  degraded,  the  heathen,  that  they  may  plant  the 
banner  of  their  church  in  new  fields,  enlighten  the  igno- 
rant, rescue  the  perishing,  and  advance  the  line  of  Christian 
light  in  its  conquests  over  error  and  sin.  Is  there  any  rea- 
son why  they  should  feel  more,  or  do  more,  than  we  ?  We 
are  accustomed  to  claim  that  the  Gospel,  as  we  hold  it, 
makes  Christ  more  precious  to  us  than  he  can  be  to  those 
of  a  narrower  faith  :  why  should  we  not  practically  show 
that  we  love  him  at  least  as  much  as  these,  by  a  zeal  as 
fervid,  by  a  concern  for  souls  as  intense,  by  a  missionary 
impulse  as  enterprising  and  heroic,  by  a  readiness  to  labor 
and  to  sacrifice  as  great  ?  We  should  ;  and  no  man  is  pre- 
pared to  take  up  our  work  and  to  be  a  minister  of  our  truth 
in  the  new  and  more  spiritual  Departure  before  us,  as  this 
truth  suggests  and  demands,  except  as  he  is  prepared  thus 
to  sink  self  and  to  prove  his  love  for  Christ,  and  his  mar- 
riage, soul  and  body,  to  our  Church,  at  any  cost. 

The  Universalist  Church  is  nothing  on  its  own  account ; 
but  as  the  organization  of  the  world's  grandest  truth,  and 
as  a  means  of  influence  for  the  enlightenment  and  redemp- 
tion of  men,  it  is  of  inexpressible  worth.     For  this  reason. 


OUR  MINISTRY.  225 

next  to  God  and  Christ,  and  in  their  behalf,  it  deserves  our 
supreme  thought,  and  therefore  tlie  undivided  loyalty  of  our 
heax'ts,  and  the  service  of  all  we  have  and  are.  All  that 
"we  can  give  it  is,  at  most,  but  a  trivial  offering,  compared 
with  what  this  Church  includes  and  represents.  A  reason- 
able individualism  we  are  always  to  maintain ;  but  what  are 
we  personally  —  our  idiosyncrasies,  our  preferences,  our 
independence,  compared  with  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  its 
claims  on  our  wise,  united,  earnest  labor  ?  Put  the  best 
man  of  us  all  into  one  scale,  rating  him  at  his  highest  im- 
portance, and  this  Church  of  ours,  with  its  treasures  of 
truth  and  splendid  possibility,  into  the  other,  and  which  will 
kick  the  beam  ?  The  Protestant  principles  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  and  of  the  final  accountability  of  each 
soul  to  God,  arc  great  principles,  never  to  be  forgotten  or 
disregarded ;  but,  like  all  great  principles,  they  may  be 
carried  to  extremes,  and  are  subject  to  the  limitations  of 
reason,  and  social  necessity  and  obligation.  These  limita- 
tions have  heretofore  been  widely  overlooked  among  us. 
We  must  see  that  they  are  not  overlooked  hereafter.  Our 
business  as  Universalists  is  not  simply  to  sow  seeds,  but  to 
cultivate  harvests ;  not  simply  to  see  that  ideas  are  dif- 
fused, but  to  organize  them,  that  they  may  be  consciouslj'' 
held  and  efficiently  served  :  and  how,  as  ministers,  can  we 
do  this,  unless  we  each  waive  something  of  our  sharp  indi- 
vidualism, that  we  may  be  merged  —  not  into  each  other, 
but  into  our  work,  and,  in  the  completeness  of  our  conse- 
cration, and  the  contagion  of  our  enthusiasm,  and  a  forget- 
fulness  of  ourselves,  flow  together,  to  labor  in  a  spirit  of 
mutual  accountability  and  service,  for  one  common  end  ? 
Give  us  'ministers  of  the  right  stamp'  in  this  particular  — 
earnest,  chivalric,  full  of  love  for  Christ  and  the  truth,  and 
all  else  will  come  right ;  but  without  such  ministers,  what- 
ever else  may  be  in  our  favor,  everything  will  go  wrong. 
As,  then,  we  love  our  Church,  and  desire  its  extension  and 
perpetuity,  so  far  as  by  wise  provisions,  wisely  enforced,  it 
is  in  our  power  to  select  and  exclude,  only  such  ministers 
should  from  this  time  forward  be  permitted  entrance 
among  us. 

15 


226  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

With  these  words,  I  leave  the  subject.  It  has"  grown 
upon  me  beyond  my  expectations.  But  it  is  vital  to  our 
future  ;  and  no  question  of  weightier  moment  presses  upon 
us,  than  that  which  asks,  Shall  we  have  the  New  Departure 
to  which  we  are  summoned  in  this  respect  ?  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  be  a  Universalist  minister,  thoroughly  furnished  — 
morally,  intellectually,  spiritually,  for  the  work  which  our 
Church  needs  and  the  time  demands.  No  higher  oflSce  can 
be  aspired  to  ;  no  graver  responsibilities  can  be  assumed. 
Shall  we  who  now  fill  the  oflSce  becomingly  feel  this  fact, 
and  aim  to  be  worthy  of  the  place  ?  Shall  due  care  be 
taken  that  those  who  hereafter  ask  our  fellowship  are  the 
kind  of  men  the  oflSce  has  a  right  to  expect  and  require  ? 
Better  no  ministers  than  ministers  unsuited  to  the  demand. 
Men  —  good  men,  of  warm  hearts,  of  large,  well-trained 
minds,  of  souls  awakened  and  consecrate,  —  chivalric,  re- 
ligious, unselfish,  these  are  what  we  should  henceforth 
insist  on,  or  keep  our  doors  closed.  And  such  men,  filled 
with  the,  Master's  spirit,  and  bound  together  in  a  common 
enthusiasm  for  our  Church,  what  may  they  not  do  ?  What 
might  we  not  look  for  as  the  result  of  their  united  labors  ? 

—  As  I  ask  these  questions,  there  comes  before  me  a 
Bcene  which  I  try  to  think  of  as  prophetic.  It  was  in  the 
church  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  at  the  close  of  the  Conference 
called  to  consider  our  condition  and  wants,  and  what  should 
be  done  to  make  us,  more  perfectly,  spiritually  active  and 
effective.  Only  ministers  were  present.  The  holy  hush  of 
the  night  was  about  us.  The  profound  impression  of  the 
season  we  had  spent  together  in  counsel  and  in  prayer  was 
upon  us.  It  was  an  hour  of  communion,  of  confession,  of 
exhortation,  of  reflection  and  high  resolve  —  the  like  of 
which  none  of  us  had  ever  known  before,  and  such  as  few 
of  us  will  ever  see  again.  Old,  middle-aged,  and  young, 
our  hearts  were  all  attuned  to  the  same  key ;  and  while 
each  was  thinking  his  own  thoughts  and  living  his  own  life, 
true  to  his  individual  being,  one  spirit  was  in  all  our  hearts, 
and  we  were  melted  into  one  brotherhood  of  mutual  love 
and  labor,  with  one  aim,  one  desire,  one  consecrating  pur- 
pose. It  was  unity  complete  ;  and  as,  with  hands  clasped, 
we  knelt  in  a  circle  that  stretched  around  the  entire  edifice, 


OUE  MINISTRY.  227 

and  the  voice  of  supplication  went  up,  asking  God's  ben- 
ediction of  grace  and  strengtli,  there  was  not  one  of  us,  I 
am  sure,  who  did  not  feel,  as  he  had  seldom  felt  before,  the 
special  presence  of  God  and  the  Saviour,  and  devoutly  ask 
their  help  to  live  and  labor  ever  after  in  the  frame  of  soul 
which  then  possessed  us.  That  kneeling,  praying,  united, 
thoroughly  attuned  company  of  brethren  is  evermore  the 
symbol  in  my  thought  of  what  our  ministry  should  be. 
God  help  us,  that  we  may  each  do  our  part  to  fulfil  it  as  a 
prophecy  of  what  our  ministry  is. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   CHURCH. 

Theoretically,  Universalists,  with  rare  exceptions,  have 
always  believed  in  the  Church — that  is,  they  have  assented 
to  it,  have  made  no  opposition  against  it;  — practically,  they 
have  quite  generally  neglected,  or  altogether  ignored  it. 
From  the  very  first,  indeed,  there  have  been  those,  both  in 
our  pulpits  and  in  our  pews,  who  have  strenuously  urged 
its  claims,  our  need  of  it,  and  our  obligations  with  respect 
to  it.  But  the  most  of  our  ministers,  occupied  in  other 
directions,  have  had  no  enthusiasm  in  pressing  its  impor- 
tance ;  and  the  great  mass  of  those  constituting  our  congre- 
gations, while  saying  in  efiect,  If  there  are  those  who  wish 
to  have  a  Church,  let  them  by  all  means  be  gratified,  have 
regarded  the  whole  subject  with  indifference,  apparently  in- 
accessible to  any  appeal  concerning  it.  As  the  consequence, 
our  parishes,  or  '  societies,'  have  usually  been  organized 
with  little  or  no  thought  of  a  Church,  and,  once  so  organ- 
ized, have  been  content  to  go  on,  year  after  year,  without 
one  ;  and  when  churches  have  been  gathered,  as  was  sub- 
stantially remarked  in  our  Survey  of  the  Field,  the  mem- 
bership, as  the  rule,  has  been  altogether  disproportionate  to 
the  congregation,  with  a  lamentable  absence  of  men  even 
from  this  meagre  number.  It  is  easy  to  explain  all  this  ; 
and  the  review  of  our  history,  in  some  of  the  preceding 
chapters,  sufiiciently  suggests  the  explanation.  Just  here, 
however,  we  are  more  concerned  with  the  fact  than  with  the 
explanation.  A  great  improvement  has  of  late  years  been 
in  progress  ;  but  even  now,  while  our  last  returns  give  us 
nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine  parishes,  they  give  us  but  fwe 
hundred  and  sixty-five  churches  ;  and  with  forty-three  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  seventy-one  families  reported  —  an 
aggregate  in  round  numbers,  reckoning  five  persons  to  a 
family,  of  two  hundred  nineteen  thousand — we  have  reported 

228 


THE  CHURCH.  229 

a  church-niGmbership  only  of  twenty-seven  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  seventy-nine,  —  about  one  eighth.  These  figures, 
probably,  do  not  fully  represent  either  our  aggregate  num- 
bers, or  our  actual  church-membership  ;  but  they  furnish 
tolerable  data  on  which  to  estimate  the  ratio  of  the  latter  as 
compared  with  the  former.  This  ratio,  it  is  true,  might  be 
smaller ;  but  is  it  at  all  what  is  demanded  by  the  highest 
welfare  of  the  interests  we  have  in  charge,  and  does  it  not 
reveal  a  failure  on  the  part  of  a  large  portion  of  our  people 
to  appreciate  the  real  nature  of  our  work  as  a  Christian 
denomination,  and  the  kind  of  means  by  which  alone  it  is 
to  be  done  ? 

It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  what,  in  so  many  forms,  has 
been  set  forth  in  the  pages  foregoing.  But  we  cannot  be 
too  constantly  reminded  that  spiritual  life  is  the  one  final 
condition  of  religious  power ;  and,  unless  all  that  has  here- 
inbefore been  said  is  unfounded,  incalculable  detriment  has 
come  to  our  cause  from  the  state  of  thought  and  feeling 
among  us  which  this  wide-spread  neglect  of  the  Church 
evinces,  —  has  come  to  us,  first,  because  we  have  so  lacked 
the  religious  life  and  purpose  which  the  Church  expresses  ; 
and,  second,  because  we  have  so  failed  to  make  use  of  the 
Church  as  one  of  the  appointed  means  of  religious  influence. 
Is  not  this  a  sufficient  warning  as  to  our  need  of  a  New 
Departure  in  this  regard,  and  a  corresponding  call  that  we 
earnestly  give  ourselves  to  the  effort  to  promote  and  deepen 
the  tendency  towards  a  better  state  of  things  ?  To  organ- 
ize churches,  or  to  swell  by  any  means  the  number  of  those 
formally  connected  with  them,  is  not,  let  it  be  confessed,  the 
highest  duty  of  a  Christian  people.  Church-membership, 
unfortunately,  is  not  always  a  sign  of  elevated  character, 
or  of  a  consecrated  life  ;  nor  has  any  Church,  probably,  ever 
yet  gathered  into  itself  all  the  truly  Christian  souls  of  the 
congregation  with  which  it  has  been  connected.  There  are 
as  good  people  outside  formal  Church  associations  as  there 
are  inside ;  and  there  are  not  a  few  who  talk  much  about 
Religion  and  the  Church  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  who  would 
honor  Christ  and  the  Christian  cause  far  more,  though  they 
never  joined  a  Church,  if  they  talked  less  of  these  things, 
and  lived  nearer  to  the  Saviour,  more  loyal  to  his  cause. 


230  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  things,  the  fact  none  the  less 
remains,  that  the  Church  is  the  appointed  method  for  the 
organization  of  Christian  faith  and  purpose,  and  an  impor- 
tant aid  in  Christian  culture ;  and  those  who  believe  in 
Christ,  loving  and  meaning  to  serve  him,  are  in  their  true 
relations  to  God  or  to  him,  to  the  conditions  of  their  own 
best  life,  or  to  the  world,  only  as  they  are  in  sacred  cove- 
nant with  God  in  church-membership. 

There  are  three  senses  in  which  the  word  Church  seems 
to  be  used  in  the  New  Testament:  —  1.  As  synonymous 
with  our  race,  according  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel  that 
Humanity  is  one,  —  the  body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head  : 
as  when  the  Apostle  says  to  the  Ephesians  (v.  25,  27)  that 
"  Christ  loved  the  Church,  and  gave  himself  for  it,  .  .  . 
that  he  might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  Church,  not 
having  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  but  that  it 
should  be  holy  and  without  blemish  ;  "  and  to  the  Colos- 
sians  (i.  11,  18),  "He  is  before  all  things,  and  by  him  all 
things  consist,  and  he  is  the  head  of  the  body,  the  Church." 
2.  As  meaning  the  whole  organized  family  of  Christian 
faith  :  as  when  our  Lord  says,  referring  to  Peter's  confes- 
sion of  his  Messiahship,  "  On  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
Church  ;  "  and  as  when  the  Apostle  says  to  the  Corinthians 
(1  Cor.  xii.  28),  "God  hath  set  some  in  the  Church,  first, 
apostles,"  etc.,  and  to  the  Ephesians  (iii.  21),  "  Unto  Him 
be  glory  in  the  Church  by  Christ  Jesus,  throughout  all 
ages."  3.  As  indicating  any  body  of  believers,  formally 
pledged  to  Christ,  and  organized  for  his  service,  with  condi- 
tions of  membership,  means  of  improvement,  and  rules  of 
discipline  :  as  when  our  Lord  said,  speaking  of  the  course 
to  be  pursued  in  the  case  of  an  ofiending  member,  "  Tell  it 
unto  the  Church"  (Matt,  xviii.  11);  and  as  the  word  is 
most  commonly  employed.  And  besides  these,  though  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  instance  in  which  the  New  Testament 
literally  so  employs  it,  —  unless  Heb.  xii.  23,  be  such  an 
instance,  —  there  is  still  another  sense  in  which  we  are 
taught  by  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  to  use  the  word, 
—  viz.,  as  meaning  the  whole  multitude  of  awakened  and 
reconciled  souls,  —  the  vast  company  of  the  redeemed  on 


THE   CHURCH.  231 

eartli  and  in  heaven,  the  Church  invisible  :  a  sense  nowhere, 

perhaps,   better  illustrated  than  in   Charles   Wesley's  fine 

hymn,  — 

"The  saints  on  earth  and  those  above 
But  one  communion  make  : 
Joined  to  their  Lord  in  bonds  of  love, 
Ail  of  his  grace  partake. 

"  One  family,  we  dwell  in  him ; 

One  Cliurch,  above,  beneath,  — 
Tliough  now  divided  by  the  flood, 
The  swelling  flood  of  death. 

"  One  army  of  the  living  God,  — 
To  His  command  we  bow; 
Part  of  the  host  have  crossed  the  flood, 
And  part  are  crossing  now." 

But  while  these  different  senses  of  the  word  are  all  to  be 
borne  in  mind,  and  we  are,  on  occasion,  to  make  due  ac- 
count of  them,  the  one  meaning  technically  and  most  com- 
monly intended  by  the  Church  is,  the  organized  religious 
life  of  Christendom,  —  Christianity  institutionally  embodied. 
In  the  broadest  sense,  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten,  the  Church 
is  not  specially  a  Christian  institution.  It  is  "the  Church 
of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  "  — 
the  symbol  of  faith  in  God,  and  of  righteous  purpose  to- 
wards Him.  As  such,  it  has  existed  from  the  hour  that  a 
human  heart  was  first  awakened  towards  God,  and  found 
other  hearts  to  associate  with  it.  Spiritually,  this  Church 
has  included  all  of  every  age  and  nation,  whatever  the 
name  or  form  of  their  worship,  who,  with  any  conception 
of  the  one  true  God,  have  aspired  towards  Him,  and  given 
themselves  to  His  service.  But  organically,  inasmuch  as 
such  are  to  be  found  mainly  in  the  line  of  those  to  whom 
God's  special  revelations  have  come,  it  is  in  this  line  that 
the  descent  and  history  of  the  Church  are  to  be  traced.  As 
far  back  as  Noah,  he  and  his  family  constituted  the  Church. 
To  them  succeeded  the  patriarchs,  and  to  them,  at  length, 
the  Jewish  nation,  as  the  people  in  covenant  Avith  God  to 
recognize  and  obey  Him,  followed,  in  the  fulness  of  time, 
by  the  Christian  Church.  The  Church  may  thus  be  said  to 
be  coeval  in  its  existence  with  that  of  our  race,  completing, 


232  OUE  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

with  the  family  and  the  state,  the  trinity  of  primary  forms 
or  institutions  in  which  it  has  pleased  God  to  organize  man- 
kind. The  family  organizes  our  domestic  life  ;  the  state, 
our  civil  relations  ;  the  Church,  our  religious  nature,  wor- 
ship and  work  ;  and  if  the  familj',  or  the  state,  can  in  any 
sense  be  spoken  of  as  a  Divine  institution,  with  the  authority 
of  God  for  its  sanction,  in  the  same  sense,  the  Church  may 
be  so  pronounced.  Nor  can  a  claim  be  set  up,  or  an  argu- 
ment be  made,  as  to  the  legitimacy,  necessity,  or  authority, 
of  the  family  or  the  state  —  both  which  are  on  all  hands 
conceded  to  have  their  foundation  in  nature  itself —  that 
cannot  be  paralleled  and  equally  maintained  in  behalf  of  the 
Church.  The  Romish  Church  is  organized  on  this  postulate. 
Hence  —  for  one  reason  —  its  power.  It  is  one  of  the 
weaknesses  of  Protestanism  that  it  has  to  so  large  an  extent 
overlooked  this  fact  —  for,  so  far  as  it  is  overlooked,  loss  in 
respect  to  all  those  ends  which  the  Church  is  intended  to 
serve  must  ensue.  The  thing  for  us  to  understand,  if  we  would 
attain  to  any  measure  of  religious  power,  is  the  thing  which 
has  thus  been  so  widely  overlooked ;  and  if  we  are  to  real- 
ize any  such  future  as  a  Christian  people  as  we  easily  may, 
we  must  renounce  our  looseness  and  indifference  concerning 
the  Church,  and,  awaking  to  perceive  what  it  is  as  an 
ordinance  of  God  and  as  one  of  the  means  of  Christian  eflS- 
ciency,  must  put  ourselves  into  solemn  covenant  with  God 
and  the  Saviour  in  it,  enforcing  its  authority,  availing  our- 
selves of  its  influence,  and  systematically  employing  every 
instrumentality  which  it  supplies. 

That  the  Church  in  this  sense  has  the  warrant  of  Christ's 
sanction  and  appointment  —  to  go  now  no  farther  back  — 
no  intelligent  person,  reading  the  New  Testament,  can 
doubt.  The  "little  flock"  which  he  gathered  on  such 
stringent  conditions  shows  us  its  origin  ;  and  the  churches 
everywhere  formed  by  the  Apostles,  as  they  went  forth  mak- 
ing converts  to  Christ,  show  us  how  it  was  continued  and 
extended.  Some  have  argued  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
form  churches,  on  the  ground  that  the  Church,  in  the  New 
Testament  sense,  is  the  whole  congregation.  But  it  is 
certain  that  the  Apostolic  churches  were  something  more 
than  mere  congregations.     They  were  distinct,  formally  or- 


c 


THE  CHURCH.  233 

ganized  bodies,  composed  only  of  those  openly  committed 
to  Clirist,  and  responsible  for  discipline — usually  embra- 
cing all  acknowledged  Ciiristians,  it  is  true,  but  only  because 
all  such  regarded  it  as  a  duty  thus  to  identify  themselves 
with  Christ,  and  were  not  recognized  as  really  Christians 
until  they  had  done  so.  To  these  can  be  lineally  traced  the 
churches  of  the  present  day. 

It  was  impossible  that  Christianitj'  should  be  preached  as 
a  living  word  without  some  such  association  of  those  believ- 
ing it.  Every  live  thing  in  this  world,  sooner  or  later,  gets 
organized.  A  germ  cannot  be  vital  without  assuming  some 
form.  A  living  embryo  necessitates  a  body  in  which  the 
living  principle  shall  clothe  itself.  And  the  law  of  animal 
and  vegetable  existence,  this  is  none  the  less  true  in  the 
realm  of  ideas.  Wherever  men  are  in  earnest,  having  living 
and  positive  convictions,  whether  in  business,  science,  poli- 
tics, or  religion,  organization  in  due  time  follows  —  loose  and 
informal,  or  compact  and  thorough,  according  to  their  defi- 
niteness  of  aim  and  earnestness  of  purpose.  The  Church 
of  God  through  all  history,  —  the  Christian  Church  as 
Christ  organized  it,  and  as  it  has  since  existed,  is  simply  the 
result  of  this  general  law  —  as  the  family  and  the  state 
are  each  the  result  of  a  similar  necessity  in  their  respective 
domains. 

The  parish,  or  religious  society,  comes  about  under  this 
law  as  a  partial  organization  of  Christianity.  It  is  the  or- 
ganization of  Christianity  as  a  theory,  or  as  a  public  social 
interest,  —  the  natural  flowing  together  of  those  agreed  as 
to  the  importance  or  desirableness  of  religious  institutions, 
though  they  may  not  yet  be  ready  to  enter  into  formal  per- 
sonal covenant  with  Clirist  as  their  Redeemer  ;  and  the  fact 
that  no  such  '  society '  exists  wliere  there  is  material  for  it, 
is  demonstrative  evidence  that  there  are  no  positive  favor- 
able convictions  among  the  people  touching  the  subject. 
The  Church  is  the  same  thing  in  a  higher  form.  It  is  the 
organization  of  Christianity  as  a  moral  conviction.  As  such 
a  conviction,  taking  hold  of  the  conscience  and  the  heart, 
Christianity  is  a  very  living  and  positive  thing.  As  the  con- 
sequence, wherever  two  or  more  persons,  thus  penetrated 
and  vivified, 

"  Whose  faith  and  hopes  and  hearts  are  one," 


234  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

are  brought  into  circumstances  of  possible  recognition,  they 
will  find  each  other ;  will  gather  around  the  same  altar  ; 
will  kneel  together  at  the  foot  of  the  same  cross,  in  confes- 
sion of  the  same  Saviour  ;  will  recognize  a  mutual  obligation 
to  aid  and  watch  over  each  other ;  will  pledge  themselves 
to  mutual  fidelity,  and  use  together  whatever  can  help  them 
to  higher  attainments  in  the  Christian  life  ;  will  ask  each 
other's  counsel,  and,  recognizing  the  authority  inherent  in 
such  an  association,  will  mutually  submit  themselves  to  re- 
buke and  discipline,  if,  on  any  account,  rebuke  or  discipline 
shall  become  necessary.  And  this,  occur  where  it  may,  is 
a  Church  — a  living  branch  of  the  One  Church.  Absolutely, 
neither  written  covenants,  nor  formulated  creeds  or  canons, 
nor  outward  ordinances  are  essential  to  its  existence.  For 
purposes  of  convenience  —  that  the  platform  of  thought  on 
which  it  rests,  and  the  responsibilities  assumed  in  uniting 
with  it,  may  be  definitely  stated  and  understood,  ai'ticles  of 
faith  and  covenants  are  desirable  ;  and  since  we  need  aids 
in  religious  culture  as  in  everything  else,  ordinances  have 
their  importance  ;  and  because  in  religion  no  more  than  in 
business  can  the  best  results  be  attained  without  system  and 
well-understood  law,  rules  and  methods  are  requisite  if  work 
is  most  efiectually  to  be  done.  But  the  Church  may  exist 
independent  of  all  these,  —  a  spiritual  conjunction  of  souls  ; 
and  it  does  in  fact  so  exist  independent  of  these  things,  or 
it  can  have  no  existence  with  them. 

There  are  those  who  do  not  like  the  name.  But  this 
is  of  little  moment.  The  thing  is  the  chief  concern ;  and 
wherever  the  conditions  meet,  this  will  appear,  demanding 
some  designation.  Christ  called  it  the  Church,  and  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  his  nomenclature  can  be  improved. 
But  whether  we  call  it  by  this  name,  or  by  some  other,  or  by 
none,  the  fact  will  be  the  same.  Bars  may  be  put  up,  and 
bolts  interposed,  to  prevent.  Those  concerned  may  be  for- 
bidden under  heavy  penalties  to  come  together.  A  place 
to  meet  may  be  denied  them  ;  and  they  may  be  hedged 
about  by  every  hinderance  and  restriction  which  bigotry  or 
malice  can  invent.  It  will  all  avail  nothing.  They  will 
come  together.  Bars  will  be  overleaped.  Penalties  will  be 
defied.     Caves  and  by-places  will  become  their  temples  for 


THE  CHURCH.  235 

worship.  The  street  and  the  market  will  serve  them  as 
places  of  communion.  And  despite  all  efforts  to  the  con- 
trary, there  will  be  hours  when  their  hearts  will  mingle  and 
burn  in  sacred  sympathy,  and  when  they  will  find  help,  en- 
couragement and  joy  in  the  sweetness  of  mutual  counsel,  or 
in  the  uplifting  power  of  mutual  prayer. 

It  is,  every  way,  most  unfortunate  that  this  natural  and 
necessary  origin  of  the  Church  is  so  almost  universally  over- 
looked, and  that  a  conception  so  foreign  to  the  fact  prevails 
instead.     The  idea  of  most  persons  is  that  the  Church  is  al- 
together formal  and  arbitrary  ;  —  a  kind  of  religious  pound 
which  somebody  has  invented,  into  which  men  and  women, 
found  at  large  in  this  world,  are   driven  for  safe  keeping, 
until  Death  calls  for  and  transfers  them  to  Heaven.      But  all 
such  ideas  —  in  which  even  some  church-members  more  or 
less    participate  —  do   great   injustice   to  the   Church,  and 
utterly  fail  of  any  thought  of  its  real  nature  and  purpose. 
It  is  no  walled  enclosure,  from  which  any  are  shut  out.     It  is 
rather  an  open  field,  into  which  all  gather  whose  hearts  are 
in   sympathy  with  Christ  and  with    each    other,  and    into 
which  all  are  at  liberty  to  gather  who  are  attracted  thither ; 
a  spiritual  household,  open  to  all  who  are  moved  towards  it, 
and  who  have  the  preparation   which  will   make  them   at 
home  in  it.     No  doubt  there  are  those  who  feel  under  an  ar- 
bitrary restraint  in  the  Church  ;  who  find  life  in  it  irksome  ; 
to  whom  it  is  a  kind  of  pound,  shutting  them  in  from  pur- 
suits and  associations  which,  at  heart,  they  prefer,  and  all 
whose  tastes  and  desires  beat  against  the  imaginary  walls 
within  which  they  are  confined,  as  an  imprisoned  bird  beats 
against  the  sides  of  its  cage.     But  such  persons  have  no 
real  church-membership.     Their  church-connection  is  simply 
external  and  seeming,  into  which  they  have  been   brought 
by  a  fear  of  hell,  or  by  some  motive  equally  foreign  to  that 
which  can  alone  put  one   actually  into  the   Church.     The 
genuine  bond  of  church-union  is  not  outward,  but  inward. 
It  is   a  bond   of  spiritual   sympathy,  —  the  confession   of 
spiritual  attractions  :  just  as  it  is  no  artificial   contrivance 
but  a  subtile  and  unseen  force,  which  unites  a  drop  of  water 
to  its  kindred  drops,  or  assimilates  into  one  body  the  sepa- 
rate particles   of  any  human  frame  ;    and  only  those  thus 


236  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

drawn  into  the  Church  as  the  home  of  their  hearts,  and 
whose  outward  church-membership  is  the  sign  of  Christ's 
work  in  their  souls,  and  of  their  inward  consecration  to  him 
and  their  unity  with  all  who  love  him,  are  really  in  the 
Church,  or  can  be  cited  to  illustrate  what  the  Church  is,  or 
what  it  is  fitted  to  do.  What  but  this  is  the  inmost  mean- 
ing of  the  fact  that  no  sooner  does  one  become  religiously 
awakened,  than  he  begins  to  seek  religious  associations  and 
to  feel  drawn  towards  the  Church  as  his  spiritual  home,  — 
while  no  sooner  does  his  heart  grow  cold  and  his  religious 
interest  decline,  than  his  sympathy  with  the  Church  declines, 
and  he  more  or  less  withdraws  from  it  ? 

Christianity  itself  is  founded  in  human  nature  ;  and  only, 
we  may  be  sure,  because  the  Church  is  thus  in  accordance 
with  nature,  having  its  origin  and  foundation  in  this  ineradi- 
cable law  of  spiritual  affinity  and  attraction,  did  our  Lord 
recognize  it  as  the  fitting  organization  of  his  religion,  and 
make  membership  in  it  at  once  the  privilege  and  the  duty 
of  all  who  love  him.  And  if,  amidst  the  hazards  and  sacri- 
fices which  discipleship  cost  in  his  time,  and  the  times  imme- 
diately following,  so  many  were  made  heroic  in  superiority  to 
all  considerations  of  personal  safety,  under  the  impulse  of  a 
faith  and  love  that  clasped  him  as  Lord,  and  thus  found 
themselves  flowing  together  in  the  sympathy  of  a  com- 
mon purpose  to  own  and  serve  him,  how  should  it  be  in 
these  later  times,  when  no  hazards  bristle  and  no  such  sac- 
rifices are  required  ?  Unfortunately,  however,  w^iile  it  is 
true  that  all  in  whom  the  work  of  Christian  faith  and  spir- 
itual awakening  has  proceeded  up  to  a  certain  point,  are 
instinctively,  by  this  law  of  spiritual  affinity  and  attraction, 
impelled  to  find  corresponding  associations  in  the  Church, 
the  far  greater  number  professing  faith  in  Christ  fail  to  reach 
this  point  of  awakening,  and  so,  failing  to  feel  this  propulsion 
towards  the  Church,  fail  to  find  their  way  into  it  as  they 
ought.  This  is  the  sad  fact  concei'ning  the  great  majority 
of  Protestant  Christendom,  and  is  the  fact  with  which  Pi'otes- 
tantism  is  called  to  deal  as  it  never  yet  has  been  dealt  with. 

Romanism  has  solved  one  side  of  the  problem  of  the 
Church.     It  has  shown  what  a  power  for  good  —  and  for 


THE   CHURCH.  237 

evil  —  the  Church  may  be,  as  an  absolute  authority  domi- 
nating' reason  and  subordinating  our  whole  nature  to  a  pas- 
sive faith.  Gathering  "  into  its  perfumed  and  symbolic 
shrines  those  believing  natures,  those  leaning  and  devotit 
souls  to  whom  a  too  naked  Protestantism  denies  any  food 
for  the  religious  imagination,"  —  obtaining  the  possession 
and  mastery  of  its  votaries  so  as  to  command  their  loj-alty, 
money  and  attendance  on  public  worship,  as  no  other  form 
of  Christian  faith  ever  has  done,  and  producing,  under  favor- 
able conditions,  some  of  the  sweetest  and  saintliest  lives 
that  have  ever  blossomed  amidst  the  selfishness,  or  shed 
their  fragrance  into  the  moral  miasms,  of  the  world,  it  has 
nevertheless  proved  a  failure  as  an  element  of  popular  life 
and  general  civilization,  because,  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
authority  it  asserts,  inimical  to  free  thought,  to  popular  ed- 
ucation, to  a  rugged  self  reliance,  to  enterprise,  to  civil  lib- 
erty, and  so  unfavorable  alike  to  material,  intellectual, 
moral  and  social  progress.  The  beggary,  ignorance  and 
general  shlftlessness  of  all  Catholic  communities,  in  the 
ratio  of  their  vassalage  to  Church-rule  —  to  say  nothing  of 
the  lawlessness  and  barbarism  of  large  numbers  whom  it 
fails  to  hold,  or  of  the  pauperism  and  crime  with  which  it 
is  so  shockingly  flooding  our  American  society  —  give  the 
sad  but  unanswerable  verdict  of  history  against  Catholicism, 
alike  as  an  interpretation  of  the  offices  of  the  Church  and  as 
a  ministry  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  world. 

Can  Protestantism  more  successfully  solve  both  sides  of 
the  problem  ?  Can  it  show  what  the  Church  is  divinely 
appointed  to  be  as  a  guiding  and  helpful  influence,  appeal- 
ing equally  to  reason  and  to  faith,  and  harmonizing  them  in 
a  Church-life,  the  blended  product  of  the  two  ?  Morally 
and  religiously,  this  is  the  Providential  question  of  the 
hour.  Thus  far,  it  has  to  be  confessed,  Protestantism  has 
but  complemented  the  failure  of  Catholicism,  by  solving  the 
problem  on  the  other  side.  While  it  has  deserved  to  have 
many  things  said  in  its  praise,  and  has  shown  itself  espe- 
cially favorable  to  liberty,  to  self-respect,  to  a  busy  and  thriv- 
ing material  enterprise  and  to  intellectual  progress,  it  has  at 
the  same  time  shown  how  little  mere  brain  or  argument  can 
do  to  serve  the  highest  spiritual  ends.     It  has  demonstrated 


238  OUE  NEW  DEPAETURE. 

that  appeals  solely  to  reason,  or  to  logic,  are,  in  their  way, 
as  unproductive  of  good,  and  as  likely  to  issue  in  evil,  as 
appeals  only  to  faith.  It  has  fostered  self-assertion  ;  has  in- 
duced denial,  and  cultivated  doubt.  Unlike  Catholicism, 
educating  the  people  to  feel  themselves  strangers  and  for- 
eigners to  the  Church,  it  has  led  them  to  feel  that  the  Church 
is  nothing  to  them,  or  they  to  it,  till  some  supernatural  cri- 
sis in  their  .experience  puts  them  into  new  relations  to  God, 
and  makes  it  proper  that  they  should  claim  to  be  among  His 
saints.  It  has  thus  destroyed  the  hold  of  the  Church  on 
the  people's  hearts  ;  has  induced  the  feeling  that  it  is  for 
those  perfected,  and  not  for  those  needing  help  ;  and  so  has 
not  only  divested  it  in  the  popular  apprehension  of  anything 
like  authority,  but  has  weakened  its  appeals,  destroyed  its 
attractions,  and  made  it  something  quite  else  than  the  spirit- 
ual home  and  beneficent  aid  which  it  was  designed  to  be. 
In  a  word,  stripping  away  the  tinsel  and  the  drapery  with 
which  Catholicism  has  upholstered  religion  and  the  Church, 
Protestantism  has  left  the  first  a  dogma  rather  than  a  senti- 
ment, and  made  the  latter  only  a  form  instead  of  a  living 
and  pregnant  fact.  As  the  result,  the  Church  as  it  stands 
to-day  in  the  thought  of  the  great  mass  of  Protestantdom  is 
a  mere  voluntary  human  association,  with  no  special  sanc- 
tion or  authority,  into  which  it  is  simply  well  enough  for 
those  to  go  who  feel  so  inclined,  and  not  a  Divine  institu- 
tion, sacred  and  venerable,  with  essential  uses  as  the  chan- 
nel of  spiritual  influence,  and  rightfully  demanding  the 
homage,  membership  and  service  of  every  soul  believing 
in  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Is  Protestantism  equal 
to  the  task  of  correcting  all  this  —  its  own  work,  and  of  so 
interpreting  the  Church  and  its  claims  and  purposes  as  to  in- 
sure for  it  its  legitimate  hold  upon  the  reason  and  faith  of 
the  people  ?  If  not.  Protestantism  is  to  prove  as  signal  a 
failure  as  Romanism,  becaiise  proving  incompetent  to  en- 
throne religion  in  the  life  of  the  people,  and  thus  to  organ- 
ize them  for  the  service  of  Christ  in  his  Church. 

It  is  not,  in  my  judgment,  an  open  question  whether  what 
is  called  '  evangelical '  Protestantism  is  thus  to  fail.  Ex- 
cept as  it  modifies  its  fundamental  ideas,  and  commits  itself 
to  new  expositions,  —  both  of  the  truth  of  Christ  and  of  the 


THE   CHURCH.  239 

relations  and  uses  of  the  Chnrch, — it  must  fail.  The  Past 
sufficiently  attests  this  ;  and  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  Uni- 
versalist  Church,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  1  believe,  is  so  to 
interpret  what  the  Church  is,  and  so  to  press  what  it  de- 
mands as,  in  this  failure  of  '  evangelical '  Protestantism,  to 
supply  what  the  time  in  this  respect  requires.  Universal- 
ism  harmonizes  reason  and  faith,  and  is  thus  able  to  present 
an  ideal  of  the  Church  equally  satisfying-  to  both.  It,  and 
it  alone,  gives  us  the  Church  republicanized  ;  and  only  the 
right  awakening  of  Universalists  to  the  meaning  of  the  truth 
they  profess,  and  therefore  to  the  meaning  and  offices  of  the 
Church,  is  required  to  insure  a  result  so  much  to  be  desired. 
Hitherto,  as  was  sufficiently  intimated  in  the  opening  of  this 
chapter,  Universalists  have  not  given  the  Church  the  place 
in  their  regards  to  which  it  is  entitled.  On  the  contrary, 
some  of  the  worst  influences  of  Protestantism  in  this  respect 
have  come  to  fruit  among  us  ;  and  owing  to  the  indifference, 
to  the  unjustifiable  self-distrust,  or  to  the  prejudices  and  mis- 
conceptions thus  begotten,  we  have  been  conspicuously  be- 
hind most  others  in  the  signs  of  Church-interest  and  Church- 
life. 

On  the  one  hand,  we  have  had  those  —  no  very  large 
number  —  who  have  decried  or  neglected  the  Church  alto- 
gether, and,  on  the  other,  those  who  have  so  advocated  it 
as  to  make  it  of  little  or  no  account.  The  former,  on  va- 
rious grounds,  have  said,  We  will  have  no  Church  ;  the  lat- 
ter have  said.  Let  us  have  the  Church,  but,  to  conciliate 
opposition,  or  secure  members,  have  lowered  the  standard 
of  its  requirements,  and  cheapened  the  significance  of  its 
Yows.  I  have  known  large  additions  to  some  of  our  Cluxrches 
thus  procured  —  only  to  increase  the  Church  in  form,  while 
lessening  it  in  moral  power,  placing  those  entering  it  in  a 
false  position  because  ostensibly  committing  them  to  that  in 
which  they  saw  no  meaning,  and  for  which  they  had  neither 
sympathy  nor  care.  The  result  has  been  disastrous  in  many 
ways.  Henceforward  all  this  must  cease,  or  ere  another 
century,  though  our  truth  will  remain,  we  shall  denomina- 
tionally have  run  our  coui'se.  The  world  needs,  and  must 
Lave,  the  Church  as  the  perpetual  symbol  of  religious  ideas, 
and  as  the  means  of  communicating  spiritual  life.     There 


240  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

can  be  no  permanence  of  religious  influence  or  results  with- 
out it ;  and  the  people  who  are  religiously  to  possess  the 
Future  are  the  people  who,  having  the  most  of  truth  and  re- 
ligious life,  shall  best  comprehend  how  to  make  the  Church 
legitimately  a  power,  and  use  it  accordingly.  This  posses- 
sion of  the  Future  will  be  ours,  if  we  do  not  blindly  and  per- 
versely throw  it  away  ;  but  it  can  be  ours  only  on  this  con- 
dition, viz.,  that  we  organize  ourselves  in  the  Church  spirit, 
and  seek  to  become  a  Church  after  Christ's  ideal. 

Not  that  we  are  to  dispense  with  our  parish  organizations. 
They  are  desirable  and  important  in  their  place.  Some 
among  us  are  urging  that  they  should  be  discontinued,  and 
that  the  Church  should  be  the  sole  primary  body.  But  our 
General  Convention,  at  Gloucester,  committed  itself  very 
decidedly  against  this  view.  As  a  part  of  the  Report  on 
the  revision  of  our  fundamental  law  there  submitted,  a  di'aft 
for  the  Constitution  and  By-laws  of  a  Church  organized  on 
this  plan  was  presented  ;  but  the  Convention  almost  unani- 
mously refused  to  sanction  it,  or  even  to  allow  it  to  be  pub- 
lished. It  thus  unmistakably  declared  in  favor  of  the  parish 
and  the  Church,  as  together  constituting  the  best  method 
for  our  primary  organization ;  and  though  as  one  of  the 
committee  who  reported  the  draft  referred  to,  I  was  person- 
ally disposed,  in  deference  to  those  who  think  such  an  or- 
ganization best,  to  submit  the  draft  for  their  use,  my  very 
strong  conviction  was  that  the  system  which  the  Convention 
thus  approved  is  on  every  account  wisest  in  principle  as 
well  as  most  expedient  in  practice.  The  spirit  of  our  Amer- 
ican institutions  demands  that  every  one  sympathizing  with 
our  ideas,  who  contributes  to  the  support  of  a  congregation, 
shall  be  entitled  to  a  voice  in  the  management  of  its  affairs ; 
and  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  larger  the  number  who  can  be 
actually  enlisted  in  our  work  the  better.  Nor  is  there  any 
reason  why  a  good  man,  fully  committed  to  our  '  Confession,' 
and  liberally  paying  his  money  to  maintain  a  parish,  should 
either  be  debarred  the  privilege  of  an  active  participation  in 
its  business  because  he  does  not  yet  feel  prepared  to  enter 
the  Church,  or  be  compelled,  for  the  sake  of  having  this 
privilege,  to  connect  himself  with  the  Church  before  he  is 
ready.     The  temporalities  of  a  congregation  are  equally  the 


THE    CHURCH.  241 

concern  of  all  connected  with  it,  and,  on  a  proper  basis,  the 
accruing  rights  should  bo  denied  to  no  one. 

But  while  the  parish  should  be  continued,  it  should  on  all 
hands  be  understood  that  it  can  in  no  way  fill  the  place,  or 
answer  the  uses,  of  the  Church.  True,  as  a  Christian  body, 
it  ought  alwaj'S  to  mean  Christian  faith  and  moral  upright- 
ness, and  by  whatever  name  it  moy  be  called,  it  is  not  a 
Christian  parish  if  care  is  not  taken  that  it  shall  mean  both 
these  ;  but  these,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  are  all  that  it 
can  mean.  The  Church  alone  stands  not  simply  for  faith, 
but  for  religious  experience  and  purpose  ;  for  the  love  of 
Clirist  and  consecration  to  him  ;  for  an  awakened  sense  of 
God,  and  a  formal  assumption  of  religious  vows.  Nor,  it 
deserves  to  be  said,  is  it  among  the  least  of  the  reasons  why 
the  parish  and  the  Church  should  be  distinct  bodies,  that 
only  thus  can  this  purely  religious  significance  of  the  Church 
be  best  maintained.  Where  there  is  no  parish,  and  any 
voice  in  the  administration  of  the  financial  and  business  af- 
fairs of  the  congregation  can  be  had  alone  by  Church-mem- 
bers, a  motive  is  furnished  to  induce  Church-membership 
that  is  wholly  foreign  to  its  real  purpose.  On  this  account 
most  Churches  organized  on  this  basis  have  those  in  their 
membership  whose  hearts  have  never  had  the  slightest  re- 
ligious awakening,  and  whose  membership  means  only  that 
they  desire,  or  that  others  desire  for  them,  the  right  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  oiSces  and  business  of  the  organizations  ;  and 
I  have  heard  of  instances  in  which  Churches  so  constituted 
have  been  recruited  by  considerable  numbers  solely  to  carry 
some  measure  for  which  they  were  willing  to  vote.  What 
meaning  or  worth  has  church -membership  so  induced? 
Were  there  nothing  else,  the  argument  thus  suggested 
would  seem  to  me  enough  to  determine  judgment  against 
the  Church  as  the  sole  body,  and  in  favor  of  the  dual  method 
so  decidedly  recommended  by  our  Convention.  In  this  par- 
ticular I  have  made  a  study  of  the  subject  through  a  pastor- 
ate of  several  years  Avhere  the  Church  is  the  sole  organiza- 
tion, and,  as  the  result,  all  my  former  convictions  have  been 
strengthened,  and  I  am  more  than  ever  satisfied  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  Convention  in  approving  the  method  it  did. 
The  Church  has  a  peculiar  character,  and  is  not  what  Christ 
16 


242  OUE  JfEW  DEPARTURE. 

moans  by  the  Church  except  as  this  is  maintained.  As  the 
Church,  it  is  God's  specific  means  for  organizing  souls  in 
consecration  to  Him.  It  may  have  adjuncts  and  auxiliaries 
—  the  more  of  the  right  sort  the  better.  But  it  alone  cm- 
bodies  Christianity  for  its  best  work  either  in  those  who  be- 
lieve it,  or  for  its  warfare  against  sin,  and  is  the  conduit 
through  which  flows  the  largest  measure  of  enlightening  and 
redemptive  power  for  the  quickening  and  salvation  of  the 
world.  And  this  being  so,  nothing,  on  the  one  hand,  should 
be  permitted  to  impair  or  qualify  this  distinctive  purpose 
of  the  Church,  and,  on  the  other,  every  individual  stirred  to 
any  becoming  sense  of  God,  or  to  any  love  for  Christ,  should 
instinctively  gravitate  towards  it,  as  the  heart  of  a  child 
towards  the  home  of  its  love. 

It  is  in  the  due  recognition  and  emphasis  of  these  two 
facts  that  we  are  to  see  our  special  work  in  respect  to  the 
Church  ;  and  only  as  wo  give  them  this  recognition  and  em- 
l^hasis,  and  thus  distinctly  and  systematically  cultivate  the 
Church  spirit,  and  work  to  Church  ends,  can  we  either  so 
interpret  the  Church  itself,  or  so  px-ess  its  demands,  as  to 
make  our  Church  the  required  answer  to  the  needs  of  the 
time.  The  important  inquiry  demanding  our  attention  is. 
How  shall  we  best  do  this  ?  and  on  what  grounds  shall  our 
claim  for  the  Church  be  built,  and  the  obligations  towards  it 
be  enforced  ? 

The  ultimate  end  to  be  aimed  at,  it  is  clear  after  what  has 
been  said,  is,  to  put  the  Church  into  its  legitimate  place 
with  the  family  and  the  State,  in  the  thought  and  aifections 
of  the  people.  Catholicism  has  done  this,  after  its  fashion  ; 
and  herein,  for  one  reason,  as  was  just  now  said,  has  lain  its 
power.  It  has  suffered  nobody  reached  by  its  teachings  to 
think  of  the  Church  as  artificial  or  adventitious,  or  as  some- 
thing in  which  they  could  possibly  have  no  concern.  The 
Church  is  organic,  primal,  its  position  has  been  —  no  less 
than  the  family  or  the  State.  On  this  foundation  Romanism 
has  always  built.  Hence,  it  insists,  every  child  born  of 
Catholic  parents  is  born  into  the  Catholic  Church,  just  as  it 
is  born  into  the  family  of  which  it  is  a  member,  or  into  the 
State  of  which  it  is  a  subject  or  citizen  ;  every  convert  to 
its  creed  is,  of  course,  by  virtue  of  his  or  her  conversion, 


THE  CHURCH.  243 

another  recruit  for  the  Church  ;  and  every  child  born  out  of 
it  on  whom  it  can  lay  its  hands  in  baptism  is  by  this  act  in- 
ducted into  its  guardianship,  and  becomes  its  possession, 
Catholicism  knows  nothing  of  outsiders  among  those  bearing 
its  name,  or  to  whom  it  can  by  any  means  lay  claim.  As 
the  result,  every  boy  or  girl  of  Catholic  pareutage,  every 
child  acquired,  every  proselyte,  every  person  of  whatever 
age,  within  the  line  of  its  instruction,  is  trained  to  feel,  I 
am  of  the  Church  :  the  Church  belongs  to  me,  and  I  belong' 
to  it ;  all  its  associations  and  traditions,  all  its  saints  and 
holy  martyrs,  all  that  makes  it  honorable  because  of  what  it 
has  done,  and  venerable  as  the  daughter  of  God  and  the 
bride  of  the  Lamb,  are  but  parts  of  my  possessions,  as  all 
its  gorgeous  ritualj  and  all  its  precious  privileges,  and  all 
the  truth  of  which  it  is  the  keeper,  and  all  its  historic  days 
and  festivals  are  for  my  help  and  salvation  ;  and  because  of 
what  it  thus  is  to  me,  and  of  what  I  am  to  it,  I  am  to  love,  to 
honor,  to  serve  it  as  I  do  my  parents,  my  country,  my  God  — 
am  to  glory  in  it  as  my  chief  pride,  counting  it  my  highest 
duty  to  live  faithful  to  it,  and  willing,  if  need  be,  to  die  for  it. 
And  thus  instructing  and  impressing  all  whom  it  can 
bring  within  its  influence,  what  wonder  that  Catholicism  so 
grasps  and  holds  its  millions  by  ties  stronger  than  hooks 
of  steel,  or  that  it  wields  so  tremendous  a  power  because 
the  object  of  an  attachment  so  intense,  and  of  a  loyalty  so 
supreme  ?  In  all  this,  it  is  easy  to  see,  there  are  elements 
of  superstition,  and  of  spiritual  domination  and  slavery, 
which,  building  on  reason  as  well  as  on  faith,  we  totally  ab- 
jure ;  nor  is  it  ever  to  be  forgotten,  in  speaking  of  Catholi- 
cism and  its  influence,  how  low  and  arbitrary  are  the  mo- 
tives on  which  it  largely  relies,  nor  what  flocks  of  its 
adherents,  so  devoted  to  their  Church  and  its  worship,  have 
only  the  hollowest  form  of  religious  service,  while  religion 
itself  seems  to  have  no  place,  as  a  principle,  in  their  thought 
or  life.  But  after  all  the  abatements  thus  reqviired,  —  and 
they  are  many,  —  here,  in  substance,  if  there  be  any  reality 
in  the  Church,  is  the  true  theory  concerning  it  and  our  rela- 
tions and  obligations  to  it ;  and  it  is  for  us,  if  we  would 
have  our  Church  a  Church  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  care- 
fully to  study  the  Romish  Church,  and  its  methods,  and  the 


244  OUR  NEW  DEPARTUEE. 

secret  of  its  power,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  in  accordance 
with  the  better  genius  and  nobler  aims  of  our  faith,  to  act 
upon  them.  Only  on  this  condition  is  anything  possible  to 
us  as  a  Church, 

There  are  those  who  are  greatly  enamoured  with  the  ex- 
ternals of  Catholicism  —  its  sacerdotal  pomps  and  proces- 
sions, its  imposing  ceremonies,  its  music,  and  all  the  sensa- 
tional appeals  through  which  it  addresses  eye  and  ear  and 
'the  religious  imagination.  In  these,  they  suppose,  chiefly 
resides  its  power,  and  in  an  imitation  of  these,  they  would 
have  us  believe,  is  our  only  hope  of  making  any  Church 
really  churchly  and  effective.  But  such,  I  am  satisfied, 
mistake,  looking  too  much  on  the  surface.  These  things, 
no  doubt,  have  their  influence  —  perhaps  more  than  some 
of  us  suppose.  But  the  ritual,  drapery  and  elaborate  sacer- 
dotalism of  Rome  are  mainly  of  the  past.  Only  its  bet- 
ter spirit  is  of  all  time.  In  this,  therefore,  we  are  to  find 
the  chief  explanation  of  its  power ;  and  it  is  this  that  we 
most  need  to  study  and  to  copy.  I  have  no  doubt,  in- 
deed, that  we  might  with  great  profit  relieve  the  barrenness 
of  our  Protestant  church-edifices  by  the  introduction  of 
appropriate  pictures  and  statuary,  and  might  add  much  to 
the  religious  helpfulness  of  our  services  by  congregational 
singing,  and  by  whatever  else  would  suitably  tend  to  make 
them  services  for  worship,  and  not  mere  preaching-meetings. 
But  I  am  fully  persuaded  that  any  man,  or  any  body  of 
men,  will  in  vain  essay  to  transfer  the  gowns  and  robes 
and  chasubles,  the  genuflexions  and  ecclesiasticisms,  the 
reading-desks  and  ritual  of  Catholicism  or  of  High  Church 
Episcopalianism,  into  the  Church  that  is  to  come,  or  attempt 
to  put  the  fresh,  rationalistic  life  of  Protestantism  into  the 
effete  forms  of  Romanism.  The  rising  David  cannot  be 
clothed  in  the  armor  of  the  doomed  Saul.  The  Church  of 
the  Future  is  to  be  a  vitalized  Protestant  Church,  and  not  a 
rejuvenated  Roman  Catholic  Church  with  the  Pope  left  out. 
New  ideals  must  clothe  themselves  in  new  forms.  David 
must  wear  his  own  armor,  and  do  his  better  work  in  his 
better  way.  But  excluding  all  that  is  inconsistent  either  with 
our  ideas  of  motive,  or  with  our  notions  of  liberty  and  the  right 
of  private  judgment,  and  speaking  only  of  what  is  unobjcc- 


THE  CHURCH.  245 

tionable  to  us  in  Catholicism  as  to  the  spirit  and  practical 
sagacity  of  its  methods,  as  to  Church-ideas  and  underlying 
principles,  as  to  winning,  foruiativo,  holding  power,  tliese,  as 
Catholicism  has  combined  and  availed  itself  of  tliem,  are  es- 
sential and  permanent,  and  have  rendered  the  Romish  Church 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  organizations  for  effective  i-eligious 
work  —  perhaps  the  most  wonderful  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  These  we  can,  and  should,  copy  ;  and  so  far  as  we  do 
so,  educating  our  people  and  others  into  the  accruing  concep- 
tion of  the  Church,  and  its  work,  and  its  relations  to  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  world,  and  the  authority  it  is  entitled  to  ex- 
ercise, and  the  uses  it  should  be  made  to  serve,  we  shall  ap- 
proximate the  true  ideal  of  the  Church  as  to  form,  and  find 
ourselves  fulfilling  the  oflBces  and  wielding  the  fitting  power 
of  a  Church  as  to  fact.  Then  Universalists  will  feel  something 
more  than  a  mere  temporary  local  or  personal  attachment  to 
particular  parishes  or  ministers.  Wherever  ihcj  go,  they 
will  carry  with  them  a  sense  of  permanent  and  organic 
membership  in  the  Univebsalist  Church,  binding  them  to 
identify  themselves  with  the  nearest  Universalist  fellowship, 
and  not  permitting  them,  as  they  now  so  often  do,  to  drift 
on  removal  into  other  connections,  or  to  be  lost  in  no  con- 
nection. Then  we  shall  have  a  Church  fulfilling  all  Church 
offices,  "baptizing  infancy,  not  as  a  family  custom,  but  as 
a  Church  sacrament ;  confirming  the  children,  and  taking 
them  into  its  more  immediate  bosom  as  they  attain  adult 
years  ;  making  both  marriage  and  burial  rites  of  the  imme- 
diate altar  ;  and  giving  back  to  the  Holy  Communion  some- 
thing of  the  sanctity  which  two  centuries  have  been  trying 
to  dispel,  without  gaining  anything  except  the  prospect  of 
its  extinction."  The  Episcopal  Church  and  some  other 
Protestant  Churches  are  to  some  extent  realizing  this  ideal. 
Our  '  Children's  Sunday,'  baptizing  our  children  as  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Church,  to  be  in  due  time  confirmed  in  their 
Church  privileges,  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  Let 
other  stops  as  fast  as  practicable  follow  ;  and  in  due  time 
the  world  will  see  the  result  in  the  Universalis!  Church, 
organized  and  thoroughly  doing  its  work  as  a  Church 
indeed. 

In  the  mean  time,  keeping  this  constantly  in  view,  and 


246  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

sedulously  shaping  our  action  and  methods  with  reference 
to  the  end  to  be  thus  reached,  we  are  to  neglect  nothing 
that  will  duly  direct  attention  to  the  Church,  and  keep  it 
before  the  people  as  the  objective  point  of  all  our  efforts, 
so  far  as  forms  and  outward  helps  are  concerned.  Our  one 
purjDose  and  earnest  labor  must  be  to  familiarize  all  whom 
we  can  reach  with  the  obligations  to  a  religious  life ;  to 
quicken  and  educate  our  children  and  people  into  a  becom- 
ing sense  of  what  the  Church  is,  and  what  are  its  claims  ; 
and  to  press  on  them  the  fact  that  only  as  what  has  hereto- 
fore been  called  the  Universalist  denomination  is  spiritually 
consolidated  into  a  Church,  whatever  other  organizations 
we  may  have,  can  we  be  the  people  God  is  calling  for,  or 
enter  into  the  inheritance  offered  us. 

There  are  various  grounds  on  which  we  may  do  this. 
Among  them  may  be  mentioned,  — 

1.  The  fact  that  respect  for  the  example  and  authority 
of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  demands  a  regard  for  the  Church 
and  identification  with  it.  That  he  instituted,  and  that 
they  continued,  the  Church,  and  that  alike  he  and  they  call 
all  who  believe  on  him  into  it,  the  New  Testament  every- 
where shows.  How,  then,  if  we  confess  any  obligation  to 
heed  their  teaching,  can  we  neglect  what  they  so  enjoin  ? 
Mere  conditions  or  accessories  may,  indeed,  be  changed,  or 
disregarded,  according  to  cii'cumstances  ;  but  the  essential 
institution  itself —  how  can  we  fail  to  accord  to  this  what  it 
calls  for,  without  in  effect  declaring  that  we  think  ourselves 
wiser  than  they  from  whom  it  comes  ?  "I  can  be  as  good 
out  of  the  Church  as  in  it,"  some  are  fond  of  saying.  But 
why  then  did  Christ  institute  it?  He  did  not  establish 
it  for  a  few,  nor  except  for  some  good  reason,  we  may  be 
sure.  It  is  no  more  necessary  for  one  thau  for  another ; 
has  no  claims  on  one  that  it  has  not  on  all  ;  and  if  one  may 
be  justified  in  its  neglect,  or  in  thinking  it  of  no  use,  then 
all  may  be,  and  the  Church  may  properly  cease  for  lack  of 
members  !  But  this  cannot  be.  The  outward  Church  is 
the  body  and  symbol  of  the  spiritual  family  of  which  Christ 
is  head,  and  of  which  all  united  to  him  in  faith  and  love 
are  members.  He  knew  what  was  in  man,  and  this  out- 
ward Church  was  instituted,  his  action  certifies  us,  and  the 


THE   CHURCH.  247 

Lord's  Supper  was  given  —  not  as  indifferent  tilings,  mere 
forms,  which  Christians  are  at  liberty  to  employ  or  not,  as 
they  may  choose,  but  only  because  there  were  essential  uses 
for  them  to  serve.  And  if  they  have  such  uses  in  the  case 
of  one,  they  have  them  not  less  for  all ;  and  if  one  is  under 
obligation  to  defer  to  Christ's  judgment  as  to  what  was 
necessary  and  best,  and  cannot  fail  to  do  so  without  disre- 
spect to  him  and  those  who  succeeded  to  the  administration 
of  his  kingdom,  why  is  not  the  same  equally  true  of  all? 

2.  Moreover,  how  is  Christianity  to  be  organized  in  its 
positive,  spiritual  purpose,  without  the  Church?  It  is 
"  nothing  until  an  institution."  Reference  has  sufficiently 
becii,  made  to  the  distinction  between  the  parish  and  the 
Church.  The  former,  as  I  hope  has  appeared,  is  expedient, 
and  often  necessary,  for  its  specific  uses  ;  but  it  is  a  mere 
legal  body,  meaning  simply  faith  in  the  truth  of  Christianity 
and  an  upright  moral  life.  The  Church  embodies  Chris- 
tianity in  its  highest  meaning  —  as  a  religious  experience,  a 
religious  purpose,  a  power  for  religious  consecration.  Is 
Christianity  to  be  denied  such  representation  ?  Everything 
else,  as  we  have  seen,  is  organized  :  shall  Christ  alone  fail 
to  have  the  advantage  of  the  association  of  his  friends  in 
direct  and  personal  committal  to  him  ? 

3.  Still  further :  Out  of  the  Church,  there  is,  unfortu- 
nately, little  keen  sense  of  obligation  to  live  in  personal 
nearness  to  Christ,  in  a  religious  life.  Church-membership, 
it  is  true,  creates  no  such  obligation.  The  obligation  is 
original  and  absolute,  preceding  all  churches  and  all  church- 
vows.  Church-membership  is  merely  the  confession  of  it, 
and  the  pledging  of  one's  self  to  try  to  live  as  it  demands. 
But  without  the  Church,  there  is  seldom  any  such  confes- 
sion. A  general  sense  of  moral  responsibility  does,  we 
know,  exist  outside  the  Church,  but  till  the  Church  is  en- 
tered, all  purely  religious  obligations  set  lightly  on  the 
conscience.  No  pledges  to  a  religious  life  are  understood 
to  be  given,  and  no  expectations  of  such  a  life  are  felt  to 
be  warranted.  This  is  a  state  of  things,  we  may  well  say, 
that  should  not  exist.  But  it  does  exist.  Who  that  is  out 
of  Church-relations,  reading  these  pages,  does  not  feel 
somewhat  less  bound  to  live  piously  and  prayerfully  than 


248  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

though  the  vows  of  church-membership  had  been  solemnly 
assumed  ?  Uniting  with  a  Church,  one  is  really  no  more 
bound  to  such  a  life  than  before  ;  but  it  is  at  once  felt  that 
responsibility  is  intensified,  if  not  created.  A  formal  pro- 
fession has  been  made  ;  pledges  of  consecration  have  been 
plighted  ;  certain  expectations  are  felt  to  be  justified  ;  and 
naturally,  one  has  a  corresponding  sense  of  obligation  to 
live  accordingly. 

And  should  there  not  be  something  to  bring  us  into  this 
state  of  feeling  ?  Who  docs  not  need  all  the  healthful 
restraints  and  all  the  legitimate  aids  and  stimulants  to  right 
living  that  can  possibly  be  supplied  ?  Who  will  say  that  it  is 
a  matter  of  small  consequence  that  the  Gospel  has  been  given 
us,  or  that  Christ  has  done  so  much  for  us  ?  And  if  these 
are  not  small  things,  who  will  say  that  we  do  not  need  all 
that  can  in  any  way  fitly  serve  to  keep  us  sensible  of  them, 
deepening  our  consciousness  of  obligation,  and  kindling 
and  impelling  us  to  careful  and  studied  Christian  living  ?  Is 
not  the  Church,  then,  a  necessity  ? 

4.  Nor  is  this  all.  Independent  of  this  increased  sense 
of  responsibility  which  it  nurtures,  the  Church  is  an  impor- 
tant help  towards  the  Christian  life  through  the  closer  and 
more  sympathetic  relations  into  which  it  brings  its  members  ; 
through  the  occasions  for  prayer  and  religious  conversation, 
counsel  and  encouragement  which  it  supplies  ;  through  the 
mutual  watchfulness  which  it  enjoins  ;  and  especially  through 
the  communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper  to  which  it  invites. 
Without  the  Church,  there  would  be  none  of  these  things,  as 
the  Church  gives  them.  And  how  much  would  thus  be  lost 
in  the  loss  —  especially  of  the  Lord's  Supper — which, 
without  the  Church,  would  inevitably  ensue  ! 

These  are  some  of  the  considerations  in  view  of  which 
the  Church  is  commended  to  our  attention,  and  by  which  it 
is  made  the  duty  of  every  Christian  believer,  and  especially 
of  every  Universalist,  to  be  in  its  membership,  in  earnest 
and  working  sympathy  with  its  purpose  to  conquer  and 
absorb  the  world.  But  the  great  consideration,  after  all,  is 
that  which  has  been  the  underlying  thought  of  this  chapter, 
—  viz.,  that  the  Church  is  the  natural  and  organic  relation 
of  souls  born   into  the  kingdom  of  God  through  the  minis- 


THE   CHURCH.  249 

try  of  His  Son  ;  that  it  is  the  channel  through  which  God 
communicates  His  Holy  Spirit  and  saving  power  most 
direct!}'  and  potently  for  the  enlightenment  and  redemption 
of  souls  ;  and  that  only  in  it  can  we  put  ourselves  into  best 
contact  with  spiritual  influences,  or  best  express  our  faith 
and  love  and  Christian  purpose.  Tliis  is  the  fact  that 
renders  all  otlier  considerations  comparatively  unimportant, 
and  that,  giving  the  Church  its  high  vantage-ground  as  an 
ordinance  of  God,  summons  all  who  believe  in  Plim,  or  in 
the  Saviour  He  has  sent,  to  say,  with  one  heart  and  one 
voice,  — 

"I  love  Thy  Church,  O  God  ! 

Her  walls  before  Thee  stand, 
Dear  as  tlie  apple  of  Thine  eye, 
And  graven  on  Thy  hand. 

"For  her  mj'  tears  shall  fall; 
For  her  my  prayers  ascend  ; 
To  her  my  cares  and  toils  be  given, 
Till  toils  and  cares  shall  end. 

"  Beyond  my  higliest  joy 

I  prize  lier  heavenly  ways  — 
Her  sweet  comnmnion,  solemn  vows, 
Her  hymns  of  love  and  praise." 

True,  the  Church  may  be  abused  ;  —  what  good  thing  may 
not  be  ?  Its  obligations  may  not  always  be  kept  ;  —  what 
obligations  are  ?  It  may  be  joined  in  self-righteousness  and 
with  airs  of  pretentious  piety;  —  what  institution  may  not 
have  unworthy  members  ?  It  may  be  said  —  it  is  sometimes 
said  —  that  the  Church  is  exclusive,  and  sets  up  improper 
distinctions  ;  but  whose  fault  is  it  if  it  makes  distinctions,  or 
if  the  many  are  out,  and  onlj'  the  few  ai'e  in  it  ?  The 
doors  are  open  ;  all  ai'e  under  equal  obligation  to  comply 
with  the  terms  of  membership,  and  are  invited  and  urged  to 
enter.  Who  are  to  be  blamed  if  all  do  not  enter  ?  Those 
who  identify  themselves  with  the  Church,  in  the  true  church- 
spirit,  make  no  pretensions  to  a  superior  goodness,  —  put  on 
no  airs,  —  set  themselves  in  no  way  above  their  neighbors. 
They  simplj'  say.  We  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
desire  to  consecrate  ourselves  to  him.  They  go  into  the 
Church  not  because  they  think  themselves  good  enough,  or 


250  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

wish  to  separate  themselves  from  others,  but  because  they 
wish  formally  to  commit  themselves  to  Christ,  and  desire  the 
help  of  the  Church  to  make  them  better.  And  who  will 
question  their  right,  or  deny  them  the  privilege  of  doing 
so,  especially  when  their  plea  with  each  one  who  has  not 
done  so  is,  "  Come  thou  with  us,  and  we  will  do  thee 
good  ?  " 

The  subject  is  large  and  invites  still  further  unfolding. 
But  I  will  not  extend  the  chapter.  Even  from  this  imper- 
fect presentation  of  it,  is  it  not  clear  that  there  is  far  more 
in  it  than  many  bearing  our  name  have  ever  imagined,  and 
that  in  no  particular  are  we  more  urgently  called  to  a  New 
Departure  than  in  our  estimates,  work,  and  denominational 
conscience  with  reference  to  the  Church  ?  Grant  all  that 
can  be  alleged  as  to  the  improving  tendencies  of  thought 
among  us  in  this  regard,  how  long  could  we  go  on  as  we 
are,  with  our  present  ratio  of  church-membership  and  our 
present  average  of  heedlessness  and  neglect,  and  have  any 
standing,  or  exert  any  power,  as  a  people  of  God  ?  The 
question  God  is  asking  us  is,  whether  we  v/ill  be  true  to  our 
ideas.  The  Church  is  one  of  the  means  through  which  we 
are  to  give  our  answer.  What  shall  it  be  ?  God  help  us, 
that  the  answer  be  right. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

A  GREAT  change  has  taken  place  in  the  general  sentiment 
of  our  body  touching  the  Sunday-school.  In  consequence 
of  that  reaction  from  the  methods  as  well  as  the  doctrines 
of  the  old  churches,  which  has  been  several  times  referred 
to  in  the  progress  of  these  pages —  and  without  a  constant 
recognition  of  which  no  person  can  to  much  purpose  study 
our  history,  because  missing  one  of  the  most  important 
keys  to  it  —  there  was  a  time  when  Sunday-schools  were 
energetically  opposed  among  us.  They  were  regarded  as  a 
priestly  and  sectarian  device  to  stay  the  progress  of  more 
rational  and  Scriptural  opinions,  and  to  fasten  the  chains  of 
'  orthodoxy  '  upon  the  children  and  youth  of  the  land  :  — 
objectionable  in  principle,  because  designed  unwarrantably 
to  bias  the  thought  of  those  under  their  influence,  and 
especially  objectionable  in  practice,  because  a  portion  of  the 
plot  to  create  '  a  religious  party  '  in  our  politics.  This 
opposition,  however,  on  various  grounds,  gradually  gave 
way  —  at  first,  mainly  on  the  ground  of  expediency,  that 
we  might  checkmate  '  our  opposers '  by  keeping  our 
children  out  of  their  hands ;  and  since  then,  as  juster 
estimates  have  prevailed,  we  have  had  numerous  new 
departures  in  respect  to  the  subject,  until  now  no  Church 
is  more  appreciative  than  ours  of  the  intrinsic  importance 
of  the  Sunday-school,  or  of  the  soundness  of  the  princi- 
ple on  which  it  rests,  —  or  more  zealous  to  use  it,  —  or 
more  eai'nest  in  discussing  the  question  of  methods,  —  or 
more  occupied  with  the  effort  to  make  the  school  in  the 
highest  degree  effective.  Nowhere,  probably,  can  there  be 
found  a  change  so  marked,  —  nowhere,  certainly,  a  change 
more  marked  or  more  favorable,  in  the  growth  of  right  think- 
ing and  feeling  in  these  regards,  than  we  thus  exhibit. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  would  be  only  a  waste  of 

251 


252  OUE  NEW  DEPARTUEE. 

words  to  use  room  here  to  set  forth  the  history  of  the  Sun- 
day-school, or  to  speak  of  its  importance  and  great  possible 
usefulness,  or  to  dwell  on  the  necessity  of  availing  ourselves 
of  every  possible  instrumentality  towards  making  the  most 
of  it.  All  these,  and  others  of  a  kindred  nature,  are  points 
concerning  which  so  much  has  been  said  that  none  of  those 
into  whose  hands  this  book  is  likely  to  fall  need  information 
or  suggestion  concerning  them.  Nor  is  there  now  such 
special  occasion  as  when  this  work  was  planned,  to  urge  as 
a  New  Departure  the  particular  recommendation  to  which 
this  chapter  is  to  be  devoted.  It  has,  fortunately,  already 
arrested  considei'able  attention,  and  has  commanded,  during 
the  two  years  past,  earnest  pens  and  tongues,  so  that  what 
I  have  to  say  on  this  point  must  be  regarded  as  a  humble 
contribution  to  help  on  a  tendency  of  thought  and  labor 
which  has  already  begun,  rather  than  an  initiation  of  it. 

The  one  thought  here  to  be  presented  concerns  the  pur- 
pose of  Sunday-school  instruction,  —  the  paramount,  absorb- 
ing end  to  which  the  school,  and  all  it  has,  and  all  it  can 
be  made,  should  be  devoted.  Preliminary  to  this,  however, 
there  are  two  other  points  concerning  which  many  years  of 
observation  incline  me  to  offer  some  hints. 

1.  Our  venerable  and  good  Father  Balfour,  though  finally 
in  favor  of  Sunday-schools  on  the  ground  of  expediency  which 
has  been  spoken  of,  —  i.  e.,  as  a  means  of  self-protection, 
was  never,  I  think,  an  advocate  of  them,  in  themselves,  and 
always  regarded  them  Avith  some  misgivings,  for  the  reason 
that  he  feared  their  effect  in  inclining  parents  to  neglect  the 
reliorious  instruction  of  their  children  at  home.  And  who 
that  has  considered  the  subject  will  hesitate  to  say  that  he 
had  good  reason  for  his  fears  ?  That  altogether  too  many 
parents  do  permit  the  Sunday-school  to  take  the  place  of 
their  personal  labors,  contenting  themselves  with  feeling 
that,  since  their  children  '  go  every  Sunday  to  Sunday- 
school,'  there  is  little  occasion  for  them  to  concern  them- 
selves about  their  moral,  and  especially  their  religious,  train- 
ing, is  known  to  us  all.  Herein  —  if  I  may  so  say  —  is  the 
great  possible  mischief  of  the  Sunday-school :  —  for  that 
anything  which  serves  to  render  parents  less  keenly  alive  to 


THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  253 

their  own  obligations  to  '  bring  up  their  children  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  the  Lord/  or  to  lessen,  no  matter 
how  slightly,  their  sense  of  responsibility  in  this  respect,  is, 

—  in  this,  and  so  far  as  it  does  it  —  mischievous,  no  one 
with  any  becoming  conception  of  parental  duty  will  dispute. 

On  some  accounts,  the  parental  are  the  most  solenm  and 

—  in  a  sense  —  most  appalling  of  all  the  obligations  that 
can  rest  upon  us.  For,  consider  what  a  child  is  as  it  comes 
fresh  from  the  hand  of  God,  —  an  immortal  soul,  with  so 
much  depending  for  itself  and  others  on  what  it  becomes, 
and  with  issues  so  tremendous,  stretching  out,  we  know  not 
how  widely,  —  stretching  on,  we  know  not  how  far,  as  the 
consequences  of  its  life,  and  then  think  how  serious  a  thing 
it  is  to  take  it  for  education  and  guidance,  —  to  give  it  im- 
press and  direction,  to  form  its  tastes,  to  determine  its 
habits,  to  shape  its  character,  and  so,  under  God,  in  a  large 
degree,  to  decide  what  shall  be  its  experience  and  temporal 
destiny,  and  to  what  purpose  of  good  or  ill  it  shall  be  in  the 
world  !  One  may  well  tremble,  and  ask  God's  special  grace 
and  help,  in  assuming  such  a  trust.  And  yet,  how  few 
seem  to  have  any  due  comprehension  of  it  I  How  lightly, 
how  thoughtlessly,  with  what  total  carelessness  and  uncon- 
cern, most  to  whom  it  is  given  take  it  upon  themselves  I  It 
is  one  of  the  saddest  things  in  the  world  that  it  is  so  ;  and 
seeing  to  what  unreflective  arms  children  commonly  come, 
and  how  they  are  accepted  and  trifled  with,  we  have  occa- 
sion only  to  wonder  that  more  lives  are  not  perverted,  and 
more  souls,  spoiled  and  lost. 

Were  it,  then,  a  necessity  of  the  Sunday-school,  in  how- 
ever remote  a  degree,  that  parents  should  transfer  to  it  their 
duty,  and  that  it  should  thus  foster  an  unconcern  and  neg- 
lect of  which  there  is  already,  by  so  vast  a  sum,  too  much, 
not  only  should  we  be  justified  in  Father  Balfour's  misgivings 
concerning  it,  but  the  number,  I  think,  would  be  small  who 
would  not,  with  intense  emphasis,  unite  to  say.  Away  with 
it  utterly  as  it  now  exists,  and  let  us  have  parental  fidelity 
instead.  In  such  a  case,  those  who  have  no  virtuous  homes 
and  no  parents  to  instruct  them,  and  whose  only  opportunity 
for  religious  training  is  that  which  the  Sunday-school  sup- 
plies, would  somehow  have  to  be  otherwise  provided  for  ; 


254  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

but  as  now  constituted,  the  Sunday-school  would  be  no 
more.  Happily,  however,  the  Sunday-school  in  no  way  ne- 
cessitates such  parental  neglect,  —  only  furnishes  the  occa- 
sion for  increased  thoughtfulness  and  more  systematic  atten- 
tion ;  and  the  father  or  mother  who,  instead  of  accepting 
its  help,  permits  it  to  become  a  substitute,  and  so  to  induce 
carelessness  and  neglect,  is  not  simply  recreant  to  duty, 
but  is  further  responsible  for  abusing  instead  of  using  a 
beneficent  means  of  Christian  education.  Every  parent  mak- 
ing any  pretence  to  conscience  or  Christian  faith,  —  above 
all,  every  Universalist  parent  should  count  it  a  privilege 
as  well  as  an  obligation  to  sit  down,  some  time  each  week, 
with  the  child,  or  children,  God  has  given,  and  talk  about  the  ' 
lesson  of  the  Sundays  past  and  that  of  the  Sunday  to  come  — 
making  it  a  point  to  see  that  every  lesson  is  perfectly  com- 
mitted, and  that  each  child,  having  been  helped  to  under- 
stand and  feel  the  instruction  which  the  lesson  is  designed  to 
convey,  is  ready  to  ask  the  teacher  such  questions  as  it  sug- 
gests, and  thus  prepared  to  appropriate  whatever  the  teacher 
or  the  school  may  further  supply.  Would  all  parents  but 
do  this,  what  a  work  would  be  achieved  !  It  is  one  of  the 
chief  hinderances  and  discouragements  of  faithful  teachers 
that  it  is  not  done.  Let  not  those  who  fail  to  do  it  be  sur- 
prised if,  in  after  years,  the-  bitter  cup  of  children's  way- 
wardness and  irreligion  be  put  to  their  lips. 

vShall  we  not  have  more  thought  among  our  parents  touch- 
ing this  subject  ?  Far  too  many  of  our  children  and  our 
schools  are  suffering  from  the  neglect  and  the  substitution 
to  which  I  refer.  Must  they,  —  shall  they  continue  to 
sufler  ?  Will  not  our  parents  resolve  on  a  New  Departure 
in  this  particular  ?  Napoleon  said  that  France  most  of  all 
needed  mothers  ;  and  the  great  need  of  this  country  and  the 
world,  to-day  and  always,  is  the  right  kind  of  homes.  And 
considering  our  own  children,  and  their  relation  to  the 
future  of  our  Church,  were  I  called  to  specify  what,  for 
their  sake,  and  the  Church's  sake,  and  the  world's  sake,  we 
most  need,  I  should  say,  A  profounder  consciousness  of  the 
meaning  of  fatherhood  and  motherhood  ;  a  keener  sense  of 
the  solemnity  and  almost  awfulness  of  parental  responsi- 
bility ;  and  a  more  earnest  and  prayerful  endeavor  to  make 


THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  255 

Home  as  the  nursery  of  character  what  it  ouglit  to  be. 
Home  is  the  chief"  jjower,  after  all.  In  vain,  comparatively, 
our  Sunday-schools  and  our  Churches,  if  we  have  not  Homes 
sanctified  to  God  and  the  Saviour,  and  made  fragrant  by 
dflily  religious  living. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Not  only,  our  parents  should  consider, 
is  any  child  irretrievably  the  loser  so  far  as  it  is  denied  — 
shall  we  not  rather  say,  defrauded  of?  —  the  helps  to  a 
good  life  which  its  home  should  give,  but  it  is  impossible 
that  our  Sunday-schools  shall  ever  be  what  they  may  be,  until 
our  parents  heartily  enlist  with  our  pastors  and  teachers  in 
the  effort  to  give  them  their  due  character  and  power. 
"  The  teacher  must  have  the  coincidence  of  the  parents," 
said  a  certain  Mnjor  Malaprop,  some  years  ago,  making  the 
customary  committee-man's  address  at  the  annual  examina- 
tion of  a  public  school,  not  many  miles  from  Boston,  He 
meant  co-operation.  And  what  he  wished  to  enforce,  and 
what  all  friends  of  education  agree  must  be  enforced,  as  a 
condition  of  the  highest  usefulness  of  our  common  schools, 
needs  no  less  to  be  enforced  in  respect  to  our  Sunday- 
schools.  Only  as  parent,  teacher  and  school  work  together 
are  the  best  results  possible  ;  and  so  far  as  any  parent  with- 
holds the  needed  co-operation  in  careful  home  instruction,  or 
fails,  because  of  the  Sunday-school,  to  give  a  child  the  re- 
ligious guidance  and  training  which  the  parental  office  im- 
plies, not  only  does  the  child  suffer  and  is  God  defied  and 
nature  outraged,  but  a  course  is  pursued  which  —  supposing 
the  duty  would  be  performed  if  there  were  no  Sunday-school 
—  renders  the  existence  of  the  Sunday-school  a  calamity  in- 
stead of  a  blessing, 

2.  The  Sunday-school  is  simply  one  of  the  auxiliaries  of 
the  Church,  —  one  of  the  means  through  which  the  Church 
works,  or  through  which  its  members  or  friends  work  to 
church-ends.  Of  course,  then,  it  should  be  supported  and 
used  accordingly.  But  who  of  us  docs  not  know  that  it  is 
not  so  supported  and  used  ?  On  the  one  hand,  far  too  many 
in  our  congregations  and  churches  treat  it  as  if  it  were  in  no 
way  a  general  concern,  but  something  outside,  —  a  separate 
affair,  on  whose  meetings,  or  anniversaries,  they  ai'e  not  to 
be  expected  to  attend  ;  something  to  be  maintained  by  such 


256  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

'  young  people  '  and  others  as  are  disposed  so  to  use  their 
time,  and  that  must  pay  its  own  way,  and  get  help  as  it  can, 
with  no  right  as  an  integral  part  of  the  parish  or  church 
to  look  to  it  for  support.  On  the  other  hand  —  and  to  a 
considerable  extent,  in  consequence  of  the  state  of  feeling 
just  described,  there  are  those  connected  with  our  schools, 
who  conduct  them  on  much  the  same  assumption.  The 
idea  of  unity  and  identity  is  lost.  The  school  is  managed 
as  if  it  were  in  itself  an  end,  and  as  if  it  and  the  church 
or  the  parish  were  —  not  one,  but  independent  and  rival 
organizations.  I  have  heard  of  superintendents,  whose  aim 
was  to  get  up  Sunday-school  cliques,  or  factions,  for  the 
furtherance  of  special  Sunday-school  pi'ojects,  with  little 
or  no  regard  to  the  common  welfare.  I  have  heard  of 
teachers,  who  habitually  absented  themselves  from  public 
worship,  saying,  "  0,  I  don't  care  for  the  church  or  the 
congregation  ;  my  interest  is  in  the  Sunday-school."  To 
the  same  effect,  children  are,  in  many  places,  taught  to  con- 
sider the  Sunday-school  as  their  church,  and  are  given  to 
understand  that,  when  its  sessions  are  closed,  the  church- 
services  have  nothing  for  them,  and  that  they  are  at  liberty 
to  go  home.  And  in  still  other  cases,  I  have  known  the 
Sunday-school  to  become  so  far  a  '  hobby,'  and  so  to  absorb 
the  leading  thought  and  energy  of  a  congregation,  that, 
while  its  aifairs  were  looked  after  with  great  discretion  and 
earnestness,  all  parish  business  and  interests  were  left  mainly 
to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  so  of  course  to  come  to  se- 
rious harm. 

Can  it  be  necessary  to  say  that  all  this,  whether  on  one 
side  or'the  other,  is  wrong  and  tends  only  to  evil  ?  If  the 
Sunday-school  has  a  right  to  exist  at  all,  it  clearly  has  a 
right  to  demand  the  sympathy  and  support  needful  that  it 
may  exist  to  best  effect,  —  and  this  not  simply  from  one, 
or  a  few,  but  from  all.  But  the  claim  to  these  is  all  that  it 
has  a  right  to  assert.  It  should  know  its  place,  and  keep 
it.  It  is  an  appendage,  an  instrument,  and  this  only.  It  is 
a  means,  not  an  end.  Attempting  to  be  more  than  this,  it 
is  an  intrusion  and  an  impertinence.  It  has  no  indepen- 
dent existence.  It  is  not  a  church  for  children,  or  anybody 
else  —  and  false  impressions  are  made,  and  harm  is  done, 


THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  257 

when,  for  any  purpose,  it  is  so  represented.  It  is  in  no 
sense  a  distinct,  or  separate,  interest  —  and  whoever  under- 
takes to  administer  or  to  serve  it  as  if  it  were,  not  only  ex- 
hibits a  culpable  ig-norancc  as  to  its  true  office,  but  is  false 
to  every  purpose  for  which  it  has  a  right  to  be,  no  less  than 
to  the  broader  concerns  to  which  it  is  subordinate.  As  a 
religious  institution,  the  Sunday-school  is  nothing  of  itself. 
The  church  alone  makes  it  legitimate,  and  gives  it  signifi- 
cance. The  church  is  the  parent ;  the  Sunday-school  is  the 
child.  The  church  is  the  fountain  ;  the  Sunday-school  is 
one  of  its  streams,  —  or,  if  we  liken  the  church  to  the 
ocean,  Sunday-schools  are  some  of  the  rivers  flowing  into 
it.  It  is  altogether  subsidiary  and  dependent,  designed  to 
serve  the  church,  and  having  any  claim  upon  the  church 
only  because  its  office  is  to  serve  it. 

Our  Sunday-schools  can  never  be  most  useful  until  these 
things  are  severally  understood  and  properly  acted  upon. 
Why  can  they  not  be  so  understood  and  acted  upon  in  ref- 
erence to  all  our  schools,  as  they  already  are  in  the  case  of 
some   of   them  ?     No  words  can    exaggerate  the    possible 
power  of  the  Sunday-school.     For  this  reason,  it  should  be 
made  a  regular  department  of  the  parish  or  church  work. 
It  should  every  year,  no  less  than  the  minister  or  the  choir, 
be  financially  provided  for,  and  so  be  saved  the  shifts  and 
expedients  to   which  it  is  now  so  frequently  compelled  to 
resort.     It  should,  as  much  as  the  rental  of  pews,  be  looked 
after  by  some   Advisory  Committee   of  the   parish  or  the 
church.     It  should  never  appeal  in  vain  to  the  members  of 
the  congregation  for  teachers  or  workers,  or  for  their  attend- 
ance on  any  occasion  when  its  claims  are  to  be  presented, 
its  reports  submitted,  or  its  work  discussed  ;  and  last,  but 
not  least,  it  should  by  common  consent  be  understood  to 
have  a  right  to  insist  on  the  attendance  of  every  child  in 
the   parish,    old   enough  to   attend,    and   no  less,   of  every 
youth,  and  of  every  adult  who  can  possibly  arrange  to  par- 
ticipate in  its  lessons  :  — for  the  Sunday-school  will  never  re- 
alize its  true  ideal  so  long  as  it  is  supposed  to  exist  only  for 
children,  and  fails  to  he  regarded  as  a  School  of  Christian  In- 
struction, designed  equally  for  all  who  can  learn,  however  ma- 
ture or  aged.     In  a  word,  the  Sunday-school  should  be  taken 
IT 


258  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

close  to  the  hearts  of  all  our  people  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  our  church-instrumentalities,  and  should  receive 
every  practicable  sign  of  an  appreciative  sympathy  from  all 
who  can,  in  any  way,  contribute  to  its  numbers  or  useful- 
ness. Whoever  fails  to  give  it  what  it  thus  deserves  and 
demands,  fliils  of  duty  in  respect  to  one  of  the  most  vital 
conditions  of  our  increasing  hold  upon  the  world. 

And  not  less  should  those  actively  connected  with  our 
schools  be  mindful  of  what  is  demanded  of  them.  Appreci- 
ating the  real  relations  and  work  of  the  Sunday-school,  they 
should  diligently  seek  to  make  it  tributary  to  the  growth  of 
the  congregation,  to  the  increase  of  an  interest  in  public  wor- 
ship, and  thus  to  the  enlargement  of  the  church.  Regard- 
ing it  as  their  first  duty  to  make  their  instructions  as  profit- 
able as  possible  to  those  under  their  charge,  they  should 
feel  that  ihej  are  the  servants  of  the  church,  and  that  the 
one  question  for  them  is,  not  how  to  build  up  a  distinct  or 
partisan  school-feeling,  or  how  to  make  the  most  of  the 
school,  as  if  it  were  or  could  be  the  rival  of  the  parish  or 
church,  or  as  if  it  were  in  itself  something  to  work  for,  but 
how  most  perfectly  to  identify  the  school  with  the  common 
work  and  welfare  of  the  parish  and  the  church,  and  how  to 
make  the  most  of  it  for  parish  and  church  ends.  Can  we 
not  have  these  things  earnestly  and  practically  recognized 
alike  by  those  outside  and  by  those  inside  our  scliools,  and 
thus  see  our  Sunday-schools  everywhere  becoming  what,  as 
helpers  and  auxiliaries  of  the  parish  and  the  church,  they 
might  and  ought  to  be  ? 

But  these  observations  have  outrun  my  design.  They 
are,  as  I  said,  only  preliminary.  The  question  to  which  I 
wish  here  particularly  to  direct  attention  is,  What  is  the  final 
jyurpose  of  the  Sunday-school  ? 

Whatever  may  have  been  true  of  exceptional  minds, 
thinking  of  what  the  Sunday-school  ought  to  be,  it  is  to  be 
doubted  whether  there  has  been,  until  recently,  any  clear 
idea  in  answer  to  this  question  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
have  done  our  Sunday-school  work  ;  and  it  is  quite  as  much 
to  be  doubted  whether  any  considerable  number  of  those 
who  are  even  now  doing  it  would  be  found  to  have  concep- 


THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  259 

tions  at  all  definite  upon  the  subject.  It  is  well  to  have 
Sunday-schools,  the  idea  has  been  and  quite  too  commonly 
still  is,  because  they  have  come  to  be  recognized  as  very 
proper  things,  and  because  it  is  really  desirable  that  our 
children  should  know  something  about  God,  and  the  Bible, 
and  the  truths  and  places  and  events  and  people  and 
duties  of  which  the  Bible  speaks.  And  so,  as  was  intimated 
in  our  second  chaptei-,  we  have  for  years  been  teaching,  in 
a  very  mixed  and  miscellaneous  way.  Scripture  Geography 
and  Biography  and  Archa3ology  and  Doctrine  and  Duty,  and 
have  accepted  as  teachers  any  tolerably  worthy  young  per- 
sons who  were  willing,  or  who,  by  persistent  solicitation, 
could  be  coaxed,  to  enlist  in  the  work,  whether  they  were 
in  the  church,  or  out,  —  whether  they  had  any  clear  and 
intelligent  views  of  doctrine  and  duty,  or  not.  And  all  to 
what  efiect  ?  It  would  doubtless  be  too  much  to  intimate 
that  no  good  has  thus  been  done.  But  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that,  as  the  rule,  our  scholars  have  failed  to  derive 
any  religious  benefit  from  what  has  thus  been  given  them, 
beyond  the  moral  impression  which  the  singing  and  general 
exercises  have  made. 

I  have  had  three  children  as  scholars  in  our  Sunday- 
schools  —  one  or  more  of  them  in  three  different  schools ; 
and  as  I  have  talked  with  them  since  they  in  their  turn 
became  Sunday-school  workers,  their  testimony  has  agreed 
in  this  —  viz.,  that,  except  in  the  case  of  one  or  two 
teachers,  they  never  gathered  anything  from  the  Sunday- 
school,  save  in  the  way  of  these  general  impressions,  and 
as  the  lessons  were  occasions  of  their  learning  something 
at  home  ;  and  one  of  them  was  for  months  taken  from 
a  Sunday-school  of  which  I  was  pastor,  because  the  class 
of  which  he  was  a  member  was,  beyond  any  remedy  of 
mine,  so  left  to  itself  after  the  merest  parrotry  of  the  words 
of  the  catechism,  that,  in  the  class,  he  was  getting  much 
injury  and  no  good.  And  these  children  were  by  no  means 
specially  unfortunate.  On  the  contrary,  their  teachers  were, 
most  of  them,  among  the  best  in  the  several  schools.  Their 
experience,  therefore,  only  illustrates  the  rule.  The  state 
of  things  it  illustrates  was  never,  perhaps,  peculiar  to  us  ; 
but  it  has  existed  among  us  to  a  greater  extent  than  in  the 


260  OUR   NEV/   DEPARTURE. 

schools  of  other  churches,  because  we  have  at  no  time  been 
so  advanced  as  to  methods,  and  especially  because  we  have 
failed  of  any  such  distinct  idea  as  they  have  had  as  to  the 
end  which  Sunday-school  instruction  should  be  made  to 
answer.  We  have  been  improving  in  this  department  of 
our  labor  as  in  others.  Probably  it  would  not  now  be  pos- 
sible to  find  superintendents  or  teachers  employed  so  utterly 
without  regard  to  religious  character  and  conditions  as  they 
were  twenty,  or  even  a  less  number  of  years  ago  —  particu- 
larly in  any  of  our  older  and  better  schools.  But  even 
now,  to  what  extent  would  a  careful  census  of  our  schools, 
not  excepting  our  oldest  and  best,  show  their  instructions 
to  be  directed  to  any  purpose  more  specific  than  this  —  viz., 
to  give  the  pupils  some  useful  information  about  the  Bible 
and  the  places,  the  people  and  the  events,  it  records,  and 
to  help  them  to  some  intelligent  conceptions  of  truth  and 
duty  as  Christianity  expounds  them  ? 

But  is  this,  or  any  part  of  it,  at  all  as  it  should  be  ?  Was 
it  for  any  such  teaching  that  Christ  died,  or  that  the  Gospel 
was  given  ?  To  what  end  does  the  Bible  teach  ?  In  his 
letter  to  the  Colossians  (i.  28),  speaking  of  '  Christ  in  them, 
the  hope  of  glory,'  Paul  says,  "  Whom  we  preach,  warning 
every  man,  and  teaching  every  man,  that  we  may  present 
ecerij  man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus."  And  who  of  us  does 
not  know  that  this  sums  up  the  burden  of  the  whole  New 
Testament  as  to  the  purpose  of  all  Christian  instruction  ? 
Seed  is  sown  for  harvests.  Leaven  is  hid  in  meal  for  re- 
sults. So,  not  less,  all  teaching  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
whether  in  the  pulpit,  the  home,  or  the  Sunday-school,  is, 
or  should  be,  with  sole  final  reference  to  religious  character. 
Christianity  is  a  ministry  of  spii'itual  quickening  and  re- 
demption ;  and  we  have  no  right,  in  whatever  capacity  we 
serve  as  teachers,  to  use  Christ's  name  anywhere,  or  to  do 
anything  professedly  under  the  auspices  of  his  religion,  ex- 
cept with  these  results  definitely  in  view. 

Here,  then,  is  something  for  us  to  think  about,  —  a  New 
Departure  to  which,  with  one  consent,  all  our  Sunday- 
schools  should  at  once  commit  themselves.  Our  Sunday- 
school  instruction  should  henceforih  aim  at  the  specific  spiritual 
7'esults  which  it  is  the  distinctive  purpose  of  Christianity  to 


THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  261 

secure.  In  this,  as  in  many  other  things,  our  '  evangelical ' 
friends  set  us  an  example  well  worth  our  following.  Their 
guns  are  always  aimed  at  one  mark.  Their  business,  under 
God,  they  believe,  is  to  save  souls  ;  and  conversion  is  the 
process  through  which,  as  they  hold,  salvation  is  to  be 
reached.  To  convert  souls,  therefore,  is  their  one  engross- 
ing purpose,  whatever  they  do  —  their  purpose  in  the  Sun- 
day-school, as  in  everything  else.  Hence  their  Sunday- 
school  repoi'ts,  whether  for  a  term,  a  year,  or  a  series  of 
years,  always  mention  the  number  of  scholars  who  have 
been  '  hopefully  converted  ; '  and  whatever  else  they  may 
have  to  report,  no  matter  how  favorable  as  to  new  scholars, 
or  punctuality,  or  perfect  lessons,  or  successful  '  excursions,' 
'concerts,'  'exhibitions,'  'festivals,'  or  '  good  social  times,' 
they  regard  their  record  as  seriously  incomplete,  and  feel 
that  they  have  lamentably  come  short  of  their  real  work, 
unless  they  are  able  to  say  tliat  some  of  their  scholars  have 
been  religiously  awakened,  and  thus  have  been  converted, 
and  led  to  give  themselves  to  God  and  the  Saviour  in  the 
Church. 

And  what  they  thus  seek,  according  to  their  conception  of 
Christian  truth,  is  preciselxj  what  we  should  seek,  according 
to  ours.  Why  should  we  be  less  interested  in  such  results, 
or  seek  them  less  earnestly  than  they  ?  True,  as  was  said 
in  the  chapter  on  the  subject,  we  have  no  faith  in  their 
theory  of  conversion,  and  see  no  necessity  for  any  such 
rescue  as  they  mean  by  salvation.  But,  as  was  shown  in 
the  chapter  refei-red  to,  we  do  not  the  less  believe  in  con- 
version. Irreligion,  worldliness,  sin,  is  not  a  state  with 
which  we  have  any  more  reason  than  they  to  be  content. 
An  awakened  spiritual  consciousness,  harmony  with  God, 
the  sweet  sense  of  acceptance  with  Him,  is  not  a  thing  to 
be  any  less  desired  by  us  than  by  them.  Nor  do  we  the 
less  recognize  the  reality  or  the  necessity  of  Christ's  saving 
work.  On  the  contrary,  to  none  are  Christ  and  his  awaken- 
ing and  redeeming  offices  so  much,  as  related  to  the  intrinsic 
need  of  the  soul,  as  to  us,  and  those  in  agreement  with  us. 
None  have  reason  to  insist  with  such  strenuousness  as  we 
on  what  these  two  words.  Conversion  and  Salvation,  really 
mean,  and  to  the  faith  or  apprehension  of  none  others  are 


262  OUR   NEW  DEPARTUEE. 

the  processes  they  signify  so  actual,  so  vital,  so  absolutely 
and  eternally  indispensable,  as  the  conditions  of  highest 
spiritual  welfare.  As  we  have  heretofore  seen,  there  is  no 
entrance  into  the  best  life  but  through  the  gate,  or  expe- 
rience, which  the  Bible  calls  Conversion ;  and  anywhere, 
only  spiritual  darkness,  insensibility,  and  death  are  possible 
to  any  soul  except  as  Christ  quickens  and  saves  it.  What, 
then,  shall  we  do  ?  These  being  the  facts,  are  they  facts  to 
be  forgotten  or  disregarded,  especially  where  the  plastic 
nature  of  childhood  is  committed  to  our  hands  ?  Are  we 
pardonable  if  we  do  not  specifically  and  anxiously  labor 
for  the  ends  which  we  profess  to  regard  as  so  essential  ? 
Or,  can  any  Sunday-school,  ostensibly  reiDresenting  these 
facts  as  the  solemn  verities  they  are  in  our  theory  of  Re- 
ligion, be  justified  before  God,  or  at  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ,  or  at  the  bar  even  of  serious  and  earnest  public 
opinion,  in  giving  them  no  attention,  or  in  failing  to  make 
them  the  inspiration  and  basis  of  such  special  labor  as  they 
suggest  and  demand  ? 

This  is  a  subject  on  which  I  will  not  presume  to  speak  for 
others.  But,  for  myself,  I  cannot  but  hold  it  solemn  and  in- 
excusable trifling,  to  gather  our  children  and  youth  for  what 
is  called  '  Sunday-school  instruction,'  Sunday  after  Sunday, 
and  3'ear  after  year,  to  dribble  into  their  minds  smatterings 
of  various  superficial  and  non-essential  knowledge,  with  little 
thought  and  no  effort  in  the  direction  of  that  particular  re- 
sult which  the  New  Testament  everywhere  presents  as  the 
grand  purpose  for  which  Christ  came  into  the  world,  and 
without  Avhich  any  soul,  whatever  else  it  may  have,  fails  of 
the  experience  into  which  it  is  the  sole  ultimate  design  of  the 
Gospel  to  lead  it.  Christianity  means  the  instruction  and 
awakening  of  souls,  that  the  life  of  God  may  flow  into  them  ; 
and  this  definitive  purpose  of  Christianity  determines  what 
should  be  the  purpose  of  every  Sunday-school,  and  the 
prayerful  effort  of  every  Sunday-school  teacher.  Every 
child,  every  youth,  every  person,  of  whatever  age,  connected 
with  a  Sunday-school  is  a  soul  to  be  awakened  and  saved, 
to  be  made  conscious  of  sin,  and  helped  to  penitence  and 
the  resources  and  joys  of  the  regenerate  life,  —  or,  if  awa- 
kened, is  a  soul  to  be  helped  and  encouraged  into  higher 


THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  2G3 

and  clearer  views  of  truth  and  duty,  into  a  deeper  expe- 
rience, into  a  more  perfect  union  with  Christ,  into  a  sweeter 
communion  with  God,  I  hold,  therefore,  that  no  session  of 
a  Sunday-school  should  pass,  whatever  else  may  be  in  hand, 
without  some  elibrt  on  the  part  of  every  teacher,  and  of  all 
whose  oflSce  it  is  to  give  tone  to  the  service,  to  further  this 
work  of  religious  awakening,  or  help,  in  the  hearts  of  the 
scholars.  Instruction  is  good.  Well-recited  lessons  and 
pleasant  talk  about  them  are  good.  Good  singing  is  good. 
Anything  that  legitimately  helps  to  give  interest  and  life  to 
a  school  is  good.  But  all  these  are  simply  incidental.  Not 
for  any  one,  nor  for  all,  of  these  does  the  Sunday-school,  as 
a  school  of  Christ,  exist.  It  exists  to  convert  and  save 
souls.  It  exists  spiritually  to  kindle  and  arouse  those  who 
can  be  brought  within  its  influence  ;  to  impress  them  with 
a  becoming  sense  of  God's  love  and  of  Christ's  self-sacrifice  ; 
to  move  them  by  the  lessons  and  appeals  of  the  Cross  ;  to 
teach  them  not  only  to  understand  the  theory  of  conversion 
and  salvation,  but  to  feel  the  necessity  of  being  themselves 
converted,  and  of  asking  with  solicitous  concern,  realizing 
how  much  is  at  stake  on  their  right  action,  "  What  must  I 
do  to  be  saved  ?  "  It  thus  exists  that  it  may  make  its  pu- 
pils spiritually  wiser  ;  stimulate  them  to  prayer,  and  the  read- 
ing of  the  Bible,  and  attendance  on  public  worship  ;  aid  them 
to  self-mastery  and  self-denial ;  induce  them  to  cultivate  an 
amiable,  genial,  kindly  spirit  in  their  homes,  and  in  all  their 
relations  and  intercourse  ;  and  so  help  them  to  be  live,  earnest, 
consecrated  men  and  women  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Nothing  among  us  has  for  a  long  time  seemed  to  me  more 
gratifying  in  itself,  or  more  promising  as  an  indication  of 
our  growing  religious  development,  than  the  '  Young  Peo- 
ple's Prayer  Meetings,'  in  which  the  religious  life  of  some 
of  our  pai'ishes  has  of  late  found  nutriment  and  expression. 
And  the  thought,  aspiration,  and  purpose  which  have  come 
to  fruit  in  these  meetings  show  us,  as  I  conceive,  precisely 
the  product  which,  on  the  experimental  and  emotional  side, 
our  Sunday-schools  should  bear,  as,  on  their  practical  side, 
they  should  come  to  fruit  —  and  can  be  of  an}'^  real  Christian 
service  only  as  they  do  come  to  fruit  —  in  rightly-poised 
and  high-toned  character  and  devout  and  holy  living.     They 


264  OUR   NEW  DEPARTURE. 

are  our  spiritual  nurseries,  designed  to  send  out  those  who, 
as  men  and  women,  shall  enrich  the  world  with  the  graces 
and  virtues  of  a  sanctified  character,  while  eager  to  do  its 
righteous  work  under  the  leadership  of  Christ  in  covenant 
with  God  in  the  Church, 

Taking  this  view  of  the  Sunday-school,  it  hardly  needs  to 
be  said  what  should  be  taught  or  done  in  it,  or  what  its  li- 
braries, or  papers,  or  entertainments  should  be.  The  test 
question  with  respect  to  these  things,  as  of  everything  else 
connected  with  the  school,  is.  What  is  their  religious  influ- 
ence ?  or,  What  bearing  have  they  on  the  religious  purpose 
which  the  school  must  be  made  to  answer  ?  What  the  ver- 
dict must  be,  in  an  application  of  this  test,  as  to  the  kind 
of  teaching  which  our  schools  have  usually  furnished,  is 
clear.  We  have  had  much  discussion  of  late  concerning 
the  '  One  Lesson  System.'  As  a  system,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  alike  the  argument  and  the  testimony  of  experience  are 
on  its  side.  But  as  to  the  point  before  us,  the  '  system  '  is  a 
matter  of  no  consequence.  If  the  same  themes  and  lines  of 
instruction  are  to  be  continued,  the  '  One  Lesson  System ' 
will  avail  no  more  to  answer  the  real  purpose  of  our  schools 
than  the  incongruous  system  which  we  have  heretofore  had. 
If  Scripture  History,  Geography  and  Biography  and  similar 
topics  are  to  furnish  the  staple  of  our  teaching,  with  a  little 
spice  of  doctrine  and  morals  mixed  in,  however  the  teaching 
may  be  given,  the  lack  of  religious  point  and  result  will  be 
the  same.  In  their  place,  indeed,  these  things  are  unques- 
tionably important ;  but  the  place  for  them  is  not  the  Sun- 
day-school, except  as  they  are  made  incidental  and  tribu- 
tary to  its  main  business.  As  well  might  one  apprenticed 
to  a  house-builder  or  a  carriage-painter  be  taught  about  the 
history  of  forests  and  all  the  processes  of  their  growth,  or 
about  the  old  painters  and  their  subjects,  and  be  led  through 
all  the  fields  of  knowledge,  however  indirectly  related  to 
these  callings,  while  the  house  or  the  carriage  was  entirely 
neglected.  In  the  case  of  such  an  apprentice,  as  he  leaves 
his  master,  the  important  question  is  not,  how  many  other 
things  has  he  learned,  but,  what  kind  of  a  workman  has  he 
been  helped  to  be.  Equally,  the  inquiry  of  chief  interest 
concerning  a  Sunday-school,  as  its  pupils  go  out  from  its 


THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  265 

classes,  is,  not  how  much  ground  of  Bible  knowledge  has  it 
led  them  over,  but,  what  has  it  done  to  convert  and  save 
them,  and  how  far  has  it  helped  to  impress  them  with  the 
importance  of  Religion,  and  led  them,  as  quickened  and  con- 
secrated souls,  into  the  discipleship  of  Christ.  And  any 
Sunday-school  which  has  no  such  results  to  show,  however 
large  or  prosperous,  whatever  else  it  may  have  done,  or 
however  numerous  the  pleasant  social  purposes  it  may  have 
served,  though  it  may  have  done  some  good,  and  so  may  de- 
serve not  to  be  condemned  as  a  cumberer  of  the  ground,  is 
a  grievous  failure  so  far  as  the  sole  final  purpose  of  a  Sunday* 
school  is  concerned. 

How  many  Sunday-schools  have  we  that  are  answering 
—  or  that  are  making  it  the  one  purpose  of  their  existence 
to  answer  —  this  real  end  of  their  existence  ?  Alas,  how 
few  I  Do  we  not  need,  then,  —  shall  we  not  have,  the  New 
Departure  in  this  regard  to  which  the  highest  welfare  alike 
of  our  children,  our  Church,  and  the  world  is  calling  us  ? 
The  hope  of  our  Church  is  in  its  Christianized  children  —  as 
the  hope  of  the  woi'ld  is  in  the  Christianized  men  and  women 
that  Sunday-schools  and  churches  are  putting  into  it.  In 
some  schools,  by  some  teachers,  it  is  our  pleasure  to  say, 
this  Departure  has  already  been  taken  ;  and  as  I  pen  these 
words,  there  rises  before  my  thought  the  class  of  one  such 
teacher,  whom  it  is  my  privilege  to  know,  who  is  finely  il- 
lustrating what  this  Departure  is,  and  what  it  would  do  for 
us.  lie  is  a  young  man,  himself  penetrated  to  the  quick  of 
his  being  with  the  thought  of  God  and  living  a  life  of  prayer 
and  of  conscientious  devotion  to  every  duty.  His  class  is 
large.  When  he  took  it,  it  was  in  some  respects  one  of  the 
least  desirable  classes  in  the  school ;  but,  coming  to  his 
work  with  his  heart  in  it,  he  soon  inoculated  the  class  with 
a  new  life.  His  one  business,  he  feels,  is  to  lead  his  boys 
to  the  Saviour.  Though  going  carefully  over  the  letter  of 
each  day's  lesson,  therefore,  he  does  it  only  to  get  at  its 
spirit ;  and,  gathering  the  heads  and  hearts  of  his  scholars 
about  his  own  as  he  talks,  as  bits  of  steel  cluster  about  a 
magnet,  whatever  the  topic,  he  makes  it  somehow  suggestive 
of  thought  about  God,  or  Christ,  or  goodness,  about  the 
perils  of  sin  or  the  attractions  of  a  religious  life.     He  talks 


266  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

much  about  prayer  and  the  importance  of  cultivating  a 
sense  of  God's  constant  nearness.  Inviting  his  scholars' 
confidence,  he  induces  them  to  open  their  hearts  and  con- 
fess their  faults  to  him,  and  thus  obtains  a  familiarity  with 
each  one  that  enables  him  to  see  what  the  boy  most  needs, 
and  how  he  can  best  adapt  instruction  to  his  case.  He  vis- 
its his  scholars  at  their  homes,  so  making  the  acquaintance, 
and  enlisting  the  sympathy  and,  to  some  extent,  the  co- 
operation, of  the  parents.  He  seeks  opportunities  to  con- 
verse privately  with  each  scholar,  that  he  may  speak  with 
the  freedom  and  faithfulness  which  he  counts  it  his  duty  to 
exercise.  In  every  possible  way,  in  school  and  out,  he  so 
identifies  himself  with  his  boys  as  to  secure  their  afiection, 
and  then  uses  the  power  he  thus  acquires  to  direct  their 
hearts  to  God,  to  pledge  them  to  daily  prayer,  to  awaken 
a  love  for  the  Saviour,  and  to  educate  them  towards  the 
Church.  In  these  several  ways,  so  far  as  he  can,  he  seeks 
to  advance  them  every  Sabbath  somewhat  into  that  life  of 
devout  thought  and  purpose,  in  the  ripening  of  which  they 
will  become  the  reflective,  reverent,  religiously  consecrated 
young  men  that  he  feels  himself  charged  of  God,  by  His 
help,  to  make  them.  Who  can  estimate  his  power  or  the 
power  of  any  such  teacher,  or  compute  what  our  schools 
would  at  once  become  if  all  our  teachers  were  actuated  by 
a  like  purpose,  and  were  as  carefully  and  prayerfully  labor- 
ing to  the  same  end  ?  Some  imagine  that  such  religious 
teachers  must  repel  their  scholars.  On  the  conti'ary,  the 
rule  is,  as  this  young  man  illustrates,  that  such  teachers 
most  interest  and  attract.  The  school  of  which  this  one  is 
a  member  has  many  faithful  and  excellent  teachers  ;  but  into 
no  other  class  is  there  such  an  anxiety  to  enter  as  there  is 
to  enter  his. 

Shall  the  lesson  of  this  case,  and  of  similar  cases,  be 
heeded  ?  The  Sunday-school,  even  with  those  among 
whom  it  has  reached  its  best  estate,  is  yet  in  its  infancy. 
Its  capacity  for  usefulness  has  only  begun  to  be  perceived. 
Its  full  possibilities  nobody  understands.  Systems  and 
methods  are  to  be  developed,  of  which  even  the  wisest  do 
not  now  dream,  multiplying  its  resources  and  increasing  its 
gi-asp  and  power.     And  as  what  is  now  potential  becomes 


THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  2G7 

actual  in  it,  it  is  more  and  more  to  place  the  world  in  its 
debt,  because  of  what  it  will  do  for  the  churches  that 
wisely  use  it,  and  for  our  Christian  civilization  as  one  of  its 
mightiest  and  most  beneficent  factors.  Out  of  it  are  to 
come  —  who  can  tell  what  ministers,  what  statesmen,  what 
men  and  women  of  all  ranks  and  orders  of  gift  and  char- 
acter, to  make  life,  home,  business,  politics,  society  wit- 
nesses of  Christ's  increasing  presence  in  them  ?  Is  the 
Universalist  Church  among  the  churches  which  it  is  thus  to 
feed,  invigorate  and  bless  ?  I  trust  in  God  that  it  is.  I 
am  sure  that  it  is.  With  our  simple,  rational,  satisfying 
faith,  so  fitted  to  the  comprehension  of  the  young,  and  so 
full  of  power,  rightly  administered,  to  stir  all  hearts,  kin- 
dling them  into  religious  life,  it  may  be  the  means  of  bless- 
ing us,  if  we  so  will,  beyond  all  others.  But  it  can  so 
bless  us  only  as  this  New  Departure  is  taken,  and  as,  learn- 
ing from  our  own  experience  and  the  experience  of  others 
what  are  the  best  methods,  we  make  all  methods  and  all 
instructions  focalize  in  this  one  great  end — the  religious 
awakening,  the  conversion  and  salvation  of  souls.  Then, 
growing  constantly  wiser,  our  schools  will  each  year  be- 
come larger  in  numbers,  because  more  vital  and  enthusiastic 
in  spirit,  and  more  effective  as  a  Christian  influence,  be- 
cause possessed  by  a  more  definite  Christian  purpose  — 
training  each  generation,  in  its  turn,  as  fresh  recruits  for 
Christ,  honorably  and  valiantly  to  bear  the  banner  of  the 
Cross,  and,  through  their  own  conversion  and  salvation,  to 
help  on  the  conversion  and  salvation  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

MAN   AND   WOMAN. 

God  has  halved  our  Humanity  into  man  and  woman ;  and 
only  as  the  halves  are  united,  of  the  twain  making  one,  can 
our  Humanity  be  complete.  Herein  is  the  wonderful  pe- 
culiarity of  Christ.  In  him,  "there  is  neither  male  nor 
female."  By  this,  primarily,  it  was  doubtless  meant  to  say 
that  he  knows  no  distinction  of  sex,  as  he  knows  nothing  of 
condition  or  race,  among  his  disciples,  because,  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  a  common  faith,  and  in  the  equal  blessings  and 
privileges  of  a  common  salvation,  all  are  one  in  him.  But 
since  he  is  alike  the  example  of  both,  the  statement  must 
also  have  been  designed  somehow  to  include  the  idea  that 
as  the  humanity  common  to  all  nations  is  summed  up  in 
him,  so  not  less  are  the  distinctive  qualities  of  the  two 
sexes.  He  is  not  simply  a  perfect  man.  In  character,  he 
is  just  as  much  the  perfect  woman  also.  How  else  could 
he  be  an  example  to  women  ? 

No  human  being,  either  as  a  man,  or  as  a  woman,  distinc- 
tively, can  fitly  represent  the  globular  wholeness  of  our  nature. 
Solely  as  a  man,  Christ  could  not.  Only  a  life  perfectly  blend- 
ing man  and  woman  can  do  this ;  and  this  is  what  Christ —  and 
he  alone  —  does.  He  is  the  union  of  the  two  sides  of  our 
nature, — the  consummate  flower  of  its  finest  and  grandest 
possibilities  ;  not  simply  a  man,  but  Man,  • — Humanity  come 
to  full  expression  in  all  that  makes  it  at  once  most  human  aud 
most  divine.  Analyze  him  morally,  and  see  —  on  the  one 
hand,  the  unconquerable  force  ;  the  tough,  persistent  will ; 
"the  iron  firmness,  resisting  temptation ;  the  courage  and  self- 
possession  that  never  quailed  ;  the  integrity  that  never  pal- 
tered ;  the  justice  that  never  gave  way  to  any  mere  senti- 
ment or  weakness  of  feeling ;  "  the  vigor,  energy  and 
strength  that  made  him  always  so  stout  and  invincible,  so 
calm  and  self-sustained,  —  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  love 

268 


'   MAN  AND  WOMAN.  269 

so  fond ;  the  tenderness  so  sympathetic  ;  the  tears  so  ready 
to  flow  ;  •'  the  considerate  care  which  provided  bread  for  the 
multitude,  and  said  to  the  tired  disciples  as  with  a  sister's 
rather  than  a  brother's  thoughtfulncss,  '  Come  ye  apart, 
and  rest  awhile ;  "'  the  shrinking  sensitiveness  ;  the  retiring 
modesty,  withdrawing  from  needless  observation ;  the  ner- 
vous susceptibility  to  sorrow  and  pain  ;  the  meek  and  pa- 
tient submissiveness  to  a  superior  will.  Here,  plainly,  are 
two  veiy  distinct  sides,  or  '  poles,'  of  character  ;  but,  save 
in  their  union,  how  could  we  have  had  the  Life  which  now 
stands  out  at  once  so  noble  and  massive,  and  yet  so  win- 
ning and  beautiful,  —  so  masculine,  and  yet  so  feminine,  in 
our  Lord  ? 

And  blending  thus  so  marvellously  the  man  and  the  wo- 
man in  his  human  completeness,  Christ  suggests  the  natural 
relations  of  the  two  sexes  as  the  complements  of  each 
other,  and  especially  illustrates  how  they  are  intended  to 
mingle  and  supplement  each  other  in  life,  and  what  is  the 
law  of  all  right  character  and  all  best  work. 

As  to  Character,  we  all  know  what  occurs  when  men  are 
long  separated  from  the  tempering  and  refining  influence  of 
cultivated  and  virtuous  women.  They  grow  rough,  coarse, 
boorish,  barbarized.  In  like  manner,  consequences  differ- 
ent, but  analogous,  show  themselves  in  women  when  long 
separated  from  high-toned  and  intelligent  masculine  society. 
Hence  the  grave  mistake  of  those  who  would  divide  the 
sexes  in  schools,  colleges,  or  anywhere  —  except  in  prisons. 
Such  results  show  that  God  has  made  them  to  dwell  to- 
gether, to  act  and  re-act  on  each  other,  and  that  the  condi- 
tions of  best  culture  are  violated  when  some  other  arrange- 
ment is  substituted  for  His.*  And  exemplifying  the  recip- 
rocal influence  of  the  sexes,  and  the  necessity  for  it,  these 
results  as  distinctly  intimate  how  the  qualities  of  the  two 
need   to  be  interchanged.     As   our  Lord  could  not  have 


^o'- 


*  Talking,  a  little  while  since,  with  a  student,  home  on  his  vacation, 
about  college  life,  and  how 'the  boys  '  deport  themselves  at  table  and 
elsewhere,  I  could  not  but  think  liow  much  would  be  gained  to  save 
them  from  the  coarseness  and  boorishncss  thus  described,  were  the 
refining  presence  of  intelligent  young  ladies  introduced  among  them. 


270  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE, 

been  the  Christ  he  is  except  as  the  union  of  the  two,  so 
always.  No  man  is  most  perfectly  a  man  save  as  he  has, 
also,  something  of  the  woman  in  him  ;  and  no  woman  is  most 
perfectly  a  woman  save  as  she  includes,  also,  something  of 
the  man.  Anything  but  a  perfect  character  follows  in 
either  case,  indeed,  if  the  man  is  so  much  of  a  woman  as 
to  lose  his  masculine  distinctiveness,  becoming  only  a  fem- 
inine man,  or  if  the  woman,  in  a  like  predominance  of  the 
man,  becomes  a  masculine  woman.  Such  a  product  is  not 
simply  an  anomaly  ;  it  is  a  violation  of  all  the  fitness  and 
harmonies  of  nature,  and  cannot  fail  somehow  to  prove  un- 
fortunate, or  mischievous,  as  well  as  unnatural.  What  is 
required  is  that  the  exclusively  masculine  qualities  in  the 
man  shall  be  flavored  and  chastened  by  those  that  are  wo- 
manly, and  that  the  purely  feminine  in  the  woman  shall  be 
re-enforced  and  strengthened  by  those  that  are  manly. 

It  is  at  this,  as  one  form  of  his  work,  that  Christ  is  constantly 
aiming  in  respect  to  us  all ;  and  in  no  terms,  perhaps,  can 
the  change  which  Christianity  has  wrought,  in  tempering, 
refining  and  ennobling  life  and  law,  be  better  described  than 
by  saying  that  it  has  thus  transfused  each  of  the  sexes  with 
something  of  the  qualities  of  the  other,  —  teaching  woman 
the  lesson  of  self-respect,  giving  new  vigor  to  her  will,  new 
earnestness  to  her  aspirations,  a  new  sense  of  obligation  to 
her  conscience,  a  larger  culture  to  her  understanding,  and  an 
increased  consciousness  of  individuality,  independence,  and 
distinct  accountability  to  her  life,  —  and  infusing  a  gentle- 
ness, tenderness,  and  purity  into  the  life  of  man  never  known 
before.  The  same  work  must  still  more  widely  and  posi- 
tively go  on,  if  the  regeneration  of  the  world  is  to  go  on ; 
and  only  as  it  does  go  on,  and  men  are  mellowed  and  softened 
with  womanly  graces,  and  women  catch  a  masculine  self- 
reliance,  individuality  and  force,  can  either  attain  the  style 
of  character  that  fulfils  the  purpose  of  their  being,  or  best 
approach  their  common  model,  Christ. 

And  what  is  thus  true  as  to  Character,  is  no  less  true  as  to 
"Work.  In  union  there  is  strength  ;  and  the  greatest  strength 
can  be  given  to  any  good  cause,  important  ends  of  any  sort 
can  be  most  quickly  or  certainly  reached,  only  as  man  and 


MAN  AND  WOMAN.  271 

woman  mingle  and  co-operate  in  the  effort.  Of  what  avail 
would  have  been  all  that  men  could  do  for  the  salvation  of 
our  republic,  had  the  women  of  the  North  been  disloyal  in  our 
late  contest  with  treason,  or  had  they  withheld  their  sympa- 
thy and  moral  encouragement  and  support  from  the  loyal 
side  ?  At  the  South,  it  was  woman  —  mistaken,  but  sin- 
cere, impassioned,  ready  for  any  sacrifice,  that  fed  the  fires 
of  rebellion  and  gave  inspiration  and  strength  to  the  traitor- 
ous struggle  ;  and  at  the  North,  it  was  only  because  the 
women  were  no  less  true  than  the  men  —  ready  to  work, 
—  ready  to  pray,  —  ready  to  say  to  husbands,  sons  and 
brothers,  Stay  not  for  us  ;  go,  and  do  your  duty  for  your 
country's  sake. — ready  to  go  themselves  to  watch  and 
serve  in  the  hospital,  to  minister  in  the  camp,  and  to  be  like 
angels  of  mercy  even  amidst  the  carnage  of  the  battle-field, 
that  liberty  triumphed,  and  that  the  Union  stands.  And 
this  but  indicates  the  universal  rule.  I  remember  that,  some 
years  ago,  the  men  of  New  England  undertook  to  build  a 
monument  on  Bunker  Hill.  They  began  with  much  enthu- 
siasm. Then  the  money  gave  out,  and  they  were  com- 
pelled to  stop.  Again,  after  a  while,  they  rallied,  and, 
gathering  more  means,  carried  the  work  a  little  farther. 
But  soon  they  had  to  halt  again  ;  and  there,  above  the 
sacred  old  battle-ground,  the  half-finished  structure  stood 
for  years  the  shame  of  our  American  patriotism,  and  the  es- 
pecial mortification  of  all  New  England.  At  length,  the 
women  took  hold,  and  ere  long,  men  and  women  working 
together,  the  money  was  raised,  and  the  monument  was  done. 
So  always — as  the  societies  and  philanthropies,  of  va- 
rious names,  that  are  most  a  success  to-day,  all  over  the 
civilized  world,  effectually  tell.  Tract  societies,  Missionary 
societies,  Bible  societies,  asylums  and  charities  —  who  needs 
to  be  told  how  much  less  all  these  would  be  as  compared  with 
what  they  are,  if  either  men  or  women  had  undertaken  alone 
to  found  and  to  further  them  ?  The  masculine  and  feminine 
forces  are  co-ordinate.  In  concurrence  they  are  the  powers 
God  has  appointed  for  moving  and  recreating  the  world  ; 
and  only  as,  concurring,  they  put  themselves  as  one  to  it,  is 
any  of  life's  best  work  most  elEciently  accomplished.  Is  it 
not  a  fact  of  suggestive  import,  that  even  in  the  great  work 


272  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

of  the  world's  redemption  God  invoked  the  instrumentality 
of  woman,  because  man  alone  could  not  inaugurate  or  com- 
plete it,  and  that,  "  born  of  a  woman,"  he  who  was  to  be 
the  image  of  God,  drawing  all  men  unto  him,  was  her  con- 
tribution to  the  sublime  enterprise  ? 

Nor,  important  as  both  are,  is  there  any  ground  for  legit- 
imate dispute  as  to  which  takes  precedence  in  importance. 
He  would  be  not  only  a  presumptuous,  but  a  foolish  man, 
who,  analyzing  the  character  of  Christ,  should  venture  to 
have  any  opinion,  or  even  to  raise  the  question,  as  to  which 
of  the  two  sides  so  manifest  in  it  is  the  more  important. 
Both  are  important,  equally  so  —  since  without  either,  there 
could  be  no  Christ.  And  not  less  is  the  presumption,  or  the 
folly,  of  those  who,  considering  the  offices  to  which  man  and 
woman  have  been  respectively  appointed,  dare  to  debate  as 
if  one  or  the  other  could  have  precedence.  The  distinction 
of  sex  runs  through  all  creation,  and  without  either,  all 
would  perish.  In  many  particulars,  —  in  all,  so  far  as  hu- 
manity, and  not  sex,  asserts  itself,  the  uses,  needs,  and  em- 
ployments of  man  and  woman  are  either  identical,  or  inter- 
changeable ;  but  that,  as  man  and  woman,  there  are  diffei'ent 
spheres  for  which  they  are  fitted,  —  different  duties  for 
which  they  are  designed,  —  different  avocations  which  they 
can  most  appropi'iately  pursue,  is  evident.  This,  however, 
argues  no  inequality,  nor  does  it  intimate  that  either  is  more 
necessary  or  important  than  the  other.  The  mother  and 
the  father,  —  the  brother  and  the  sister,  — the  husband  and 
the  wife,  —  he  who  builds  ships,  or  sweats  at  the  forge, 
and  she  who  plies  the  needle,  —  the  toiler  in  the  counting- 
room,  at  the  bench,  or  on  the  farm,  and  the  mistress  of  the 
home  —  who  will  undertake  to  draw  a  line  between  these, 
and  to  say  which  occupies  the  prouder  or  the  humbler  po- 
sition, or  which  acts  the  part  most  requisite  in  the  grand 
economy  of  life  ?  As  well  might  the  sunlight  and  the  air 
get  up  a  quarrel  as  to  their  relative  importance  !  For  my- 
self, I  confess  that  I  have  no  words  duly  to  express  my  dis- 
gust at  all  such  discussions,  or  my  sense  of  their  baselessness 
and  impropriety  ;  and  especially  does  it  awaken  my  wonder 
and  disgust,  when  I  hear  women  so  lost  to  self-respect  and  a 


MAN  AND  WOMAN.  273 

just  appreciation  of  the  dignity  and  glory  of  a  true  woman- 
hood, as  to  talk  as  if  what  have  hitherto  been  regarded  as 
man's  peculiar  pursuits  and  avocations  were  in  any  respect 
more  noble  or  dignified,  or  more  worthy  the  honorable  am- 
bition of  an  aspiring  woman,  than  those  to  which,  as  a 
woman,  she  has  been  appointed.  Shame  on  the  man,  who, 
forgetting  his  wife  or  his  mother,  for  a  moment  indulges  the 
thought  that  woman  is  not,  in  every  attribute  and  office,  at 
least  fully  his  peer ;  and  shame  even  more  on  the  woman, 
who,  in  a  discontented  itching  to  be  something  other  than 
she  is,  dishonors  her  sex  by  disparaging  its  fitting  employ- 
ments, and,  croaking  as  to  the  ignobleness  of  her  limitations, 
vainly  apes  the  life  of  a  man,  in  open  or  secret  rebellion 
against  God  for  making  her  a  woman. 

Denials,  it  is  true,  there  are  of  woman's  individuality, 
and  discriminations  against  her  rights — though  among 
these,  in  my  judgment,  the  right  to  vote  is  not  included  — 
of  which,  the  relics  of  that  condition  of  bondage  and  inferi- 
ority out  of  which  Christianity  has  lifted  her,  woman  has 
just  reason  to  complain,  and  for  the  correction  of  which 
woman  and  all  fair-minded  men  should  sti-enuously  insist 
and  persistently  agitate. 

Traditional  notions,  too,  there  are,  as  to  what  employments 
woman  may  fittingly  adopt,  against  which  all  women,  and 
men  in  their  behalf,  have  no  less  reason  to  remonstrate 
and  rebel.  In  former  years,  the  lines  thus  drawn  were  so 
restricted  that  women  were  not  unfrequently  compelled  to 
repress  themselves  in  the  non-use  of  special  gifts  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  which  they  might  have  attained  eminence,  or  to 
confine  themselves  to  avocations  already  so  crowded  as  to 
leave  no  room  for  large  numbers  except  to  starve,  or  beg, 
or  sell  themselves  to  sin.  Latterly,  these  lines  have  been 
somewhat  extended,  and  women  have  been  overstepping 
the  old  boundaries  and  getting  into  pursuits  and  industries 
that  would  once  have  been  thought  quite  improper  for  them. 
But  there  is  still  too  much  of  the  old  traditional  estimate 
surviving.  The  whole  world  is  open  for  woman  just  as 
much  as  for  man,  and  there  is  no  arbitrary  or  conventional 
rule  to  be  set  up  as  to  what  she  may  or  may  not  do.  Any 
gift  is  a  Divine  call  to  its  use ;  and  to  be  in  the  world  is  to 
18 


274  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

have  the  right  to  choose  how,  honestly,  to  earn  our  bread. 
Whatever  she  can  do,  therefore,  woman  may  properly  feel 
herself  at  liberty  to  do,  due  regard  being  had  to  natural  pro- 
prieties and  constitutional  limitations.  A  man  who  should 
strangely  get  the  idea  that  it  is  his  office  to  bear  children, 
or  to  do  '  dress-making '  or  '  plain  sewing,'  or  to  keep  house 
instead  of  his  wife,  or  to  do  any  one  of  a  thousand  similar 
things,  we  should  say,  had  somehow  become  morbid  or 
twisted  in  his  estimate  of  his  fitting  employment ;  and  what- 
ever fondness  or  ability  he  might  urge,  we  should  tell  him, 
could  better  find  exercise  in  something  more  appropriately 
masculine.  And  so,  equally,  a  woman,  who  should  as 
strangely  think  herself  called  to  build  or  to  sail  ships  as  her 
life-calling,  or  to  make  roads,  to  erect  houses,  to  quarry 
rocks,  to  run  locomotives,  to  sit  in  the  senate,  to  plead  at 
the  bar,  or  to  do  anything  else  so  evidently  outside  the 
feminine  province,  however  she  might  aver  a  native  taste 
or  ability  for  it,  would  invite  a  similar  judgment,  and  could 
as  properly  receive  like  advice.  Evidently,  as  just  now 
said,  there  is  a  masculine  and  there  is  a  feminine  sphere. 
But  with  only  this  qualification,  founded  in  nature  itself,  it 
is  for  woman  no  less  than  for  man  to  enter  the  field  of  all 
possible  employment,  and  to  walk  where  she  will,  following 
the  bent  of  her  genius,  or  electing  as  she  prefers,  whether 
it  be  to  paint  pictures  or  to  chisel  statues,  to  compose  songs 
or  to  sing  them,  to  write  or  to  '  keep '  books,  to  deliver  lec- 
tures, to  set  types,  to  sell  merchandise,  to  count  money,  to 
ply  the  needle,  or  to  do  whatever  else  she  will.  So  that 
the  employment  be  but  honest  and  useful,  it  will  be  its  own 
vindication  as  becoming  and  womanly,  and  will  thus  suffi- 
ciently vindicate  her  for  pursuing  it. 

But  these  unjust  discriminations  and  false  ideas  being 
corrected,  it  is  for  both  men  and  women,  sitting  at  the-  feet 
of  nature,  to  see  that  their  respective  offices  and  lines  of 
service  have  been  as  wisely  appointed  as  they  are  distinctly 
marked  ;  that,  as  just  now  remarked,  they  are  co-ordinate, 
neither  having  the  pre-eminence  as  assigned  to  offices  more 
dignified  or  more  important  than  the  other,  since  both  are 
equally  indispensable  ;  and  that  they  are  alike  most  worthy 
and  honorable  when,  in  no  spirit  of  jealousy,  and  no  sour  or 


MAN  AND  WOMAN.  275 

flippant  aping  of  each  other,  but  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  self- 
respect  and  co-operation,  —  man  as  man,  woman  as  woman, 
—  they  stand  each,  reverently  and  helpfully,  in  the  lot  God 
has  prescribed,  and  seek  to  glorify  it  by  a  faithful  discharge 
of  the  duties  it  imposes. 

Whatever  is  to  be  done  can  best  be  done  as  man  and 
woman  thus  work  together.  But  in  nothing  are  the  con- 
junction and  co-operation  to  which  they  are  so  called  more 
needful  than  in  labors  for  church-interests  ;  and  in  the  New 
Departure  to  which  we  are  summoned,  if  we  are  to  be  most 
efficient  as  a  Christian  Church,  more  account  will  have  to 
be  made  of  this  fact,  and  more  thorough  and  systematic 
means  will  have  to  be  employed  to  provide  for  and  secure 
this  co-operation.  Not  that  I  mean  to  intimate  any  inten- 
tional neglect  of  woman  hitherto  as  an  element  of  power  in 
our  Church,  nor  that  we  have  been  particularly  behind  other 
churches  in  recognizing  the  importance  of  her  influence,  or 
seeking  to  enlist  it.  I  mean  only  that,  with  us  as  with 
most  other  churches,  there  has  been  no  systematic  effort  in 
this  direction.  Like  others,  indeed,  we  have  had  our  sew- 
ing societies,  and  fairs,  and  festivals,  — in  all  of  which,  of 
course,  woman  has  been  a  party.  She  has  had  her  place, 
moreover,  —  in  many  instances,  a  most  important  place,  — 
in  the  Sunday-school.  But,  aside  from  these,  she  has  been 
left  without  any  special  sense  of  responsibility,  because  she 
has  been  left  to  feel  that  there  was  nothing  else  for  her  to 
do.  It  is  for  us,  in  the  time  to  come,  if  we  would  be  most 
and  do  most  as  a  Church,  to  amend  our  methods  in  this  par- 
ticular ;  to  assign  woman  equally  with  man  something  to  do ; 
and  to  have  it  understood  that,  in  all  things,  she  is  to  be 
systematically  an  active  participant  in  our  Church  work. 

But  how  shall  this  be  done  ?  A  quite  vigorous  demon- 
stration has  of  late  been  made  among  us  in  the  direction  of 
a  woman  ministry  ;  and  no  small  press  of  influence  has 
been  used  by  some  of  those  favorable  to  it  to  induce  all 
women  who  could  be  so  persuaded  to  go  into  the  pulpit. 
Is  this  to  be  a  part  of  woman's  new  work  hereafter  for  our 
Church  ?  My  own  very  decided  conviction  is.  No.  I  have 
great  faith  in  woman,  but  no  faith  in  a  woman  ministry. 


276  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

Not  that  I  have  no  faith  in  woman's  right  to  speak,  if  she 
has  auything  to  say,  and  is  moved  to  say  it  in  public,  either 
in  the  pulpit  or  anywhere  else.  I  know  not  why  she  may 
not  speak  or  pray,  as  well  as  sing,  in  public,  if  she  can  do 
it  to  edification  ;  know  not  why  it  is  not  her  province  and 
her  right  —  nay,  if  she  feels  so  impressed,  her  duty  —  to  do 
these  things,  or  either  of  them,  as  much  as  it  is,  or  can  be, 
man's.  The  power  to  instruct  or  to  move,  either  by  written 
or  spoken  language,  is  not  of  sex,  but  of  soul ;  and  the  pos- 
session of  the  power  is  God's  warranty  for  its  use.  Some 
of  the  prayers  that  have  taken  me  nearest  heaven  have  been 
the  outpouring  of  woman's  devotion  ;  and  some  of  the 
most  eloquent  and  impressive  utterances  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  hear  have  come  burning  from  woman's 
heart  and  brain,  in  liquid  fire  from  woman's  lips.  Who 
shall  forbid  such  women  —  or  any  woman  who  can  do  it  — 
either  the  privilege  or  the  right  to  carry  souls  to  the  Father's 
throne  on  the  wings  of  their  prayers,  or  to  kindle  and  in- 
spire us  with  their  messages  of  instruction,  or  their  plead- 
ings for  truth  and  the  right,  whatever  the  theme  on  which 
they  may  choose  to  speak,  or  the  place  in  which  they  may 
prefer  to  stand  ?  Not  I,  surely,  '  lest  haply '  I  '  be  found  to 
fight  against  God.' 

But  to  speak  or  to  pray  in  public  as  convenience  suits, 
or  as  occasion  demands,  is  one  thing ;  to  make  the  ministry 
a  profession,  and  to  be  formally  set  apart  to  the  pastoi'al 
ofiice,  is  quite  another :  and,  with  all  deference  to  my 
preaching  sisters,  many  of  whom  it  is  my  privilege  to 
know,  and  most  of  whom  I  hold  in  high  esteem,  I  am 
compelled  to  confess  that  the  propriety  of  the  latter  does 
not  by  any  means  seem  to  me  to  follow  from  the  right- 
fulness of  the  former.  To  do  the  former  is  to  follow 
God's  intimations,  in  a  legitimate  use  of  gifts  He  has  be- 
stowed ;  to  do  the  latter,  I  cannot  but  think,  is  to  overlook 
evident  hinderances  and  disqualifications  in  woman's  very 
constitution,  physical  if  not  moral,  and  is  thus  totally  to 
disregard  the  fitness  of  things.  Every  woman  choosing  the 
ministry  as  her  life-work  deliberately  renounces  offices  for 
which  she  was  intended,  or  proposes  to  accept  these  offices 
only  to  make  incidental  and  secondary  the  paramount  and 


MAN  AND  WOMAN.  277 

sacred  duties  which  they  involve.  A  woman  ministry, 
therefore,  in  the  sense  of  adopting  the  ministry  as  a  profes- 
sion, is  out  of  the  order  of  nature.  It  is  forbidden  by  in- 
trinsic impediments  and  constitutional  restraints  and  limita- 
tions. It  is,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  always  must  be, 
an  anomaly.  For  this  reason,  it  is  winning-  us  no  respect. 
It  is  helping  us  to  no  hold  on  the  best  and  most  thoughtful 
minds  —  only  serving  to  confirm  the  false  impression  that 
we  are  an  unbalanced  and  visionary  people,  given  to  crotch- 
ets, and  ready  to  adopt  every  vagary  that  may  assert  itself, 
or  seem  to  promise  us  help  to  get  up  a  sensation.  Despite 
immediate  appearances  anywhere,  it  is  doing  us  no  good, 
having  regard  to  the  interests  of  our  cause  '  in  the  long 
run  ;  '  and,  whatever  special  efforts,  or  spasmodic  tenden- 
cies, may  temporarily  do  to  push  recruits  into  it,  or  what- 
ever popularity,  or  supposed  legitimacy,  ingenious  special 
pleadings  and  inconsequent  reasonings  may  avail  for  a  while 
to  give  it,  it  can  never  be  otherwise  than  exceptional,  or 
command  the  cordial  sympathy  and  support  of  any  consid- 
erable number  of  intelligent  people. 

These  being  my  convictions,  I  scarcely  need  further  ex- 
plain why  it  is  not  in  the  ministry  that,  looking  to  our  New 
Departure,  I  see  woman's  work  for  our  Church.  Neither 
judgment  nor  conscience  would  permit  me  to  encourage  a 
woman  to  prepare  for  the  ministry  ;  and  should  one  come 
to  me,  claiming  to  bo  prepared,  and  asking  license,  ordina- 
tion, or  installation,  neither  personally  nor  officially  could  I 
vote,  or  in  any  way  assist,  to  give  it.  At  the  same  time,  it 
seems  to  me  unwise  to  have  any  controversy  upon  the  sub- 
ject. The  idea  of  a  woman  ministry  is  one  of  the  numerous 
extravagances  incident  to  all  periods  of  agitation  in  respect 
to  important  principles,  when,  in  the  reaction  from  old  mis- 
takes or  abuses,  extreme,  irrelevant,  and  therefore  false, 
conclusions  are  jumped  at  from  premises  more  or  less  sound. 
It  belongs  to  the  category  of  things  against  which  it  avails 
nothing  to  reason,  because  they  are  not  matters  of  argu- 
ment or  reasoning,  only  of  impulse  or  sentiment,  —  often 
of  obstinate  self-will.  It  will  have  its  run,  as  many  a  simi- 
lar idea  has  had,  and  then  pass  away.  It  is  self-limited, 
and  therefore  self-doomed.     Nature  is  not  to  be  successfully 


278  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

defied,  whatever  transient  seemings  may  be  ;  and,  being 
against  it,  nature  may  be  trusted,  without  much  ado  on  our 
part,  in  time,  to  dispose  of  it. 

And,  having  no  faith  in  the  pulpit  as  a  fitting  profession 
for  woman,  or  in  its  work  as  her  future  work  for  the  church, 
I  have  no  more  faith  in  the  policy  of  her  separate  action 
which  many  of  all  churches  are  so  ready  to  invoke,  and 
which,  notably,  came  in  among  us  with  our  Centenary  and 
has  since  been  organized  for  permanence.  The  principle  of 
separation  is  in  effect  —  though,  commonly,  not  so  intended 

—  that  of  disintegration.  As  such,  it  is  not  a  good 
principle  anywhere,  if  results  which  unity  and  consolidation 
can  best  produce  are  desired  ;  and  least  of  all  is  it  a  good 
principle  for  man  and  woman  in  work  for  the  church.  Let 
it  be  granted  that  some  desirable  ends  may  be  gained 
through  woman's  separate  action  which  could  not  be  so 
fully  realized  without  it.  So  some  desirable  ends  might  be 
accomplished  if  we  should  stir  our  rich  men  to  have  their 
separate  action,  —  and  our  poor  men  to  have  theirs,  — 
and  our  young  people  to  have  theirs,  —  and  our  children  to 
have  theirs,  —  and  our  people  of  brown  hair  to  have  theirs, 

—  and  those  of  light  hair  to  have  theirs  —  and  so  on, 
dividing  and  subdividing  through  all  possible  distinctions. 
No  doubt  there  are  those  who  could  be  reached  and  induced 
to  contribute  time  and  money  on  such  a  plan  of  procedure, 
who  could  not  otherwise  be  interested.  But  how  it  would 
dishevel  and  segregate  us  !  What  a  bundle  of  fragments  it 
would  make  us  !  How  it  would  impair  and  to  a  large  extent 
destroy  not  only  our  sense  of  unity,  but  our  spirit  of  co- 
operation !  And  what  rivalries  and  jealousies  and  cross- 
purposes  it  would  beget !  It  may  be  doubted  whether  any 
wise  and  practical  friend  of  our  Church,  or  of  any  church, 
would  favor  a  proposition  to  organize  on  any  such  plan, 
whatever  the  immediate  products  it  might  promise.  But  if 
the  principle  of  separate  action  for  our  women  be  sound 
and  expedient,  why  not  as  sound  and  expedient  for  all 
the  separate  action  that  can  be  devised  ? 

It  is  not  separation,  but  aggregation  that  we  want.  The 
more  thoroughly  unified  and  compact  we  are,  —  the  more 


MAN   AND   WOMAN.  279 

perfectly  and  systematically  we  can  be  brought  to  work 
together,  not  as  many,  but  as  one,  the  stronger  we  shall  be, 
and  the  more  we  shall  be  able  to  accomplish.  And  true  of 
all  others,  this  is  no  less  true  of  men  and  women.  It  is  in 
the  concurrence  of  th^  masculine  and  feminine  forces,  as  was 
just  now  said,  that  God  has  provided  for  the  power  which 
most  moves  the  world.  The  more  these  two  forces  are 
conjoined,  making  common  cause,  not  merely  with  reference 
to  the  general  ends  to  be  furthered,  but  with  reference  to 
ways  and  means,  the  mightier  they  become.  Any  two 
persons,  disposed  to  work,  working  together,  will  accom- 
plish more  than  they  can,  working  apart ;  and  men  and 
women  —  if  the  figure  may  be  pardoned  —  hitched  together, 
and  pulling  the  same  load  in  the  same  harness,  will  do  vastly 
more  than  if  each  party  insists  on  having  its  special  load 
and  its  special  harness.  They  will  pull  different  sides,  in 
different  '  traces  '  ;  but  it  will  be  the  same  load,  pulled  to 
unspeakably  greater  effect.  What  do  God's  arrangements 
say  to  us  ?  He  does  not  set  men  in  one  company,  and 
women  in  another.  He  puts  them  together  —  in  families, 
in  churches,  in  communities,  everywhere  :  assigning  them, 
it  is  true,  to  dissimilar  duties,  with  '  diversities  of  gifts  '  and 
'diversities  of  operations,'  but  with  one  common  interest, 
and  with  their  dissimilar  duties  only  parts  of  one  common 
work.  AVho  doubts  that  all  the  interests  involved  are  thus 
better  served  than  though  they  had  been  organized  apart  ? 
So  we  shall  be  strong  in  proportion  as  we  can  enlist  their 
activity  and  co-operation  on  the  same  principle. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  have  been  heartily  glad 
to  see  our  women  alive  to  the  necessity  of  somehow  making 
themselves  actively  felt  in  our  Church  affairs,  and  for  this 
reason  have  counted  it  a  privilege  to  contribute  as  I  could  to 
the  success  of  what  they  have  undertaken.  I  do  not  wonder 
that  they  have  tired  —  the  earnest,  devoted  souls  among 
them,  of  the  policy  —  or  rather,  of  the  no-policy  —  which 
has  prevailed  among  us,  in  common  with  other  churches, 
with  regard  to  them,  and  that  they  have  been  moved,  alike 
by  self-respect  and  by  their  love  for  the  dear  cause  which  is 
as  much  theirs  as  ours,  to  their  separate  organization,  since, 
they  had  reason  to  suppose,  this  was  the  only  way  in  which 


280  OUR  NEW  DEPAETURE. 

they  could  really  become  participants  in  our  general  work. 
Better,  far  better  such  action  than  none  ;  and  if  the  ques- 
tion to-day  were,  Shall  the  women  do  nothing,  or  shall  they 
work  by  themselves  as  they  are  trying  to  do  ?  I  would  say, 
By  all  means,  though  the  principle  of  separation  be  not 
sound,  and  at  the  risk  of  all  consequences,  let  them  organ- 
ize and  do  what  they  can.  Life  is  better  than  lethargy, 
even  though  hazards  must  attend  it.  But  while  ready  with 
all  my  heart  to  say  this,  and  to  thank  God  and  them  for 
whatever  good  work  they  have  done,  I  am  none  the  less 
satisfied  that  the  principle  on  which  they  are  now  proceed- 
ing is  a  false  one,  certain  to  divide  our  sympathies,  and 
likely  to  fritter  our  energies  and  to  give  rise  to  emulations, 
jealousies  and  misunderstandings  not  at  all  favorable  to  the 
union  in  which  lies  our  strength.  The  question,  happily,  is 
not,  Shall  our  women  do  nothing,  or  work  by  themselves  ? 
but,  How  shall  we  combine  our  resources,  so  as  to  make 
ourselves  most  effective  ?  And,  convinced  that  one  of  the 
answers  to  this  question  is  to  be  found  in  the  wise  and 
thorough  consolidation  of  our  masculine  and  feminine  forces, 
and  not  in  their  segregation,  I  make  these  suggestions,  with- 
out any  attempt  thoroughly  to  discuss  the  subject,  trusting 
that  attention  may  be  so  called  to  the  erroneous  principle  and 
what  is  likely  to  result  from  it,  as  to  insure  better  action. 

It  seems  to  me  a  sad  —  and  in  some  respects,  a  most 
unpromising  —  thing,  that  our  women  should  be  talking 
as  if  they  were  a  distinct  element  in  our  Church,  and  as 
if  it  were  desirable  that  they  should,  as  women,  show  them- 
selves "a  power"  in  it.  Is  it  forgotten  that  in  Christ 
"  there  is  neither  male  nor  female  "  ?  As  Universalists,  the 
inquiry  of  chief  interest  concerning  us  is  not  whether  we 
are  men  or  women,  but  whether  we  are  lovers  of  the  truth, 
ready  to  work  for  it ;  and  as  lovers  of  the  truth,  ready  to 
work  for  it,  whether  men  or  women,  we  should  clasp  hands, 
and  give  ourselves  to  our  Church-work  as  one  work.  So 
far  as  our  women  have  any  definite  aims,  they  are  identical 
with  those  of  our  Convention.  Why,  then,  split  our  work, 
needlessly  multiplying  calls  for  '  contributions,'  dividing 
sympathy,  and  keeping  two  sets  of  machinery  in  motion  ? 
In  union  lies  our  greatest  strength.     Can  we  not  have  this 


MAN   AND  WOMAN.  281 


understood,  and  cease  to  parcel  off  our  work  as  man's  and 
woman's,  and  be  done  with  these  special  "woman's" 
associations,  appeals  and  contributions  ?  Can  we  not  organ- 
ize and  conduct  all  our  enterprises,  of  whatever  sort,  as  parts 
of  one  great  whole,  equally  the  concern  of  all,  and  showing 
that  not  men,  and  not  women,  as  such,  but  souls  consecrated 
to  Christ,  men  and  women,  are  the  '  power  '  —  and  the  only 
recognized  power — in  our  Church?  If  we  cannot,  alas  1 
for  us.  If  we  can,  not  only  shall  we  escape  most  undesira- 
ble liabilities  to  which  this  separate  system  exposes  us,  but 
we  shall  secure  a  sense  of  unity  and  a  practical  co-operation 
aud  a  harvest  of  results  otherwise  impossible. 

And  seeing  nothing  for  our  Church  in  a  woman  ministry, 
and  more  than  doubting  the  wisdom  or  permanent  useful- 
ness of  woman's  separate  action,  I  must  further  add  that  I 
have  as  little  faith  in  any  good  as  likely  to  come  to  our 
cause  from  the  present  tendency  to  constitute  our  Conven- 
tions of  woman-delegates.  Put  into  plain  terms,  this  ten- 
dency amounts  simply  to  this  —  a  disposition,  because  men 
cannot  be  fouud  willing  to  leave  their  business  for  such 
duties,  to  fill  up  our  delegations  with  young  girls  and  women, 
who,  earnest  and  excellent  in  many  respects,  have  little  or 
no  interest  in  the  details  of  our  Church-affairs, — have  no 
acquaintance  with  business  and  no  resources  of  practical 
judgment,  and  are  thus  destitute  of  the  qualities  without 
which  neither  dignity  nor  weight  can  be  given  to  our  repre- 
sentative bodies.  It  seems  plain  to  me  that  only  evil  can 
come  from  such  a  state  of  things.  What  we  need  in  this 
particular  is  to  attract  increased  attention  to  these  represent- 
ative bodies,  and  to  give  them  increased  dignitj''  and  im- 
portance because  of  the  intelligence,  position,  ripeness  of 
judgment  and  elevated  character  of  those  who  compose 
them.  We  have  committed  serious  mistakes,  and  been 
much  at  fault,  hitherto,  in  this  department  of  our  concerns. 
The  rule,  too  frequently,  has  been  that  any  reputable  man, 
'  willing  to  go,'  has  been  thought  to  be  material  suitable 
enough  for  a  delegate.  Our  best  men  we  have  sometimes 
had,  but  not  often.  It  is  not  so  with  other  churches.  As 
the  rule,  they  send  only  their  best  men,  and  it  is  a  sight  well 


282  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

worth  beholding,  to  go  into  some  of  these  bodies  in  session 
and  see  of  what  material  they  are  constituted.  Why  should 
not  our  bodies  be  constituted  with  equal  care  to  bring  our 
wisest  and  weightiest  representatives  into  them  ?  Our  best, 
our  most  thoughtful  and  cultivated,  our  most  practically 
sagacious  and  eminent  minds  are  the  delegates  we  want,  and 
that  we  should  insist  on  having  ;  and  if  there  are  women 
in  our  churches  —  as  there  are — belonging  to  this  class  of 
minds,  thoughtful,  practical,  with  a  taste  for  business  and  a 
familiarity  with  our  methods  and  work,  with  definite  opinions 
and  a  willingness  to  express  them,  and  a  disposition  to  attend 
faithfully  to  the  duties  of  delegates,  by  all  means  let  us  have 
them.  They  will  add  dignity,  and  character,  and  wisdom 
to  our  councils.  But  it  can  only  issue  every  way  in  harm 
to  us  if  women  of  a  different  type  are  sent ;  and  so  far  as 
they  are  sent,  and  the  immature,  the  flippant,  the  non-prac- 
tical, those  unwilling  or  unable  to  give  serious  attention  to 
business  as  business,  or  incompetent  to  have  or  to  express 
intelligent  opinions  touching  the  great  interests  that  are, 
every  year,  more  and  more  to  demand  the  action  of  our 
delegated  bodies,  the  men  who  ought  to  be  in  them  will  be 
disinclined  to  have  part  in  our  legislation,  and  these  bodies 
will  degenerate  into  mere  gatherings  for  talk,  worthy  of  lit- 
tle respect  and  commanding  none. 

What,  then,  is  there  for  woman  to  do  ?  and  how  is  she, 
in  our  New  Departure,  more  generally  and  more  effectively 
to  concur  in  labors  for  our  Church  ?  These  are  questions 
more  easily  asked,  perhaps,  than  answered  in  set  detail. 
But  even  if  they  were  questions  of  the  easiest  answer,  it 
would  not  fall  within  the  province  of  these  pages  to  answer 
at  length,  since  the  purpose  here  is  to  suggest  needs,  and, 
if  possible,  to  awaken  thought  towards  their  supply,  rather 
than  to  recommend  particular  methods  in  form.  It  will  be 
enough  if  any  word  thus  said  shall  stimulate  to  reflection 
upon  this  subject.  Once  induce  this  among  our  people,  and 
plans  and  methods  will  soon  follow. 

Let  it  suffice  now  to  remark,  by  way  only  of  outline  and 
suggestion,  that  every  parish  and  every  church  should  be  or- 
ganized on  the  principle  of  giving  every  member  something 


MAN   AND  WOMAN.  283 

to  do,  and  in  the  assignments  of  labor  thus  made,  women 
equally  with  men  should  be  appointed  to  duty.  This  will 
give  in  every  congregation  women  as  well  as  men  for  pas- 
toral visitation  and  counsel,  —  for  looking  after  the  sick  and 
the  poor,  —  for  waiting  on  outsiders  whom  it  is  desirable  to 
bring  in,  and  on  new  comers  whom  it  is  desirable  to  help  feel 
at  home,  and  on  the  lukewarm  and  absentees  whom  it  is  de- 
sirable to  stir  to  better  attendance  and  a  new  interest ;  — 
for  soliciting  money ;  —  for  talking  up  new  and  forward 
movements  of  whatever  sort,  and  for  furthering  the  common 
welfare  in  any  way.  Women,  moreover,  as  well  as  men, 
should  be  looked  to  for  their  help  in  the  Conference  Meet- 
ing, and  the  meeting  for  prayer,  and  in  whatever  other 
work  may  be  attempted  to  promote  and  deepen  religious 
life. 

Then  our  State  Conventions  and  our  General  Convention 
should  recognize  women,  just  as  much  as  men,  as  among 
their  constituents,  in  appointing  committees,  in  inviting  sug- 
gestions, in  the  distribution  of  responsible  duties  for  the 
furtherance  of  our  cause.  As  an  example  of  what  might  in 
this  way  be  done,  take  the  action  of  our  General  Convention, 
at  its  last  session,  in  respect  to  the  Missionary  Box  —  a 
source  of  revenue  which  others,  copying  it  from  us,  have 
made  so  productive,  and  which  might  be  made  equally  pro- 
ductive for  us,  but  concerning  the  best  management  of  which 
there  has  been  so  much  debate.  After  much  discussion,  the 
Convention,  whose  it  is,  and  whose  it  should  sacredly  re- 
main, wisely  determined  to  put  it  —  not  into  the  hands  of  a 
separate  Woman's  Association  as  had  been  proposed,  as  if 
women  were  not  an  integral  part  of  our  Church,  but  into 
the  hands  of  a  committee,  a  majority  of  them  women,  who, 
in  the  name  of  the  Convention,  are  to  administer  the  Boxes 
in  its  behalf,  and  to  cause  them,  through  such  agencies  as 
may  thus  be  appointed,  to  pour  full  streams,  twice  a  year, 
into  its  treasury.  Who  doubts  the  result,  should  the 
women  of  the  committee  take  vigorous  hold  of  the  business  ? 
Or,  how  better  could  our  women  be  brought  into  direct 
and  practical  co-operation  with  the  Convention,  as  part 
and  parcel  of  it  ?  This  is  mentioned  only  as  one  example 
of  what  might  be  done  ;  but  the  example  suggestively  covers 


284  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

the  whole  field,  and  indicates  how,  be  it  what  it  may  that 
our  Church  proposes,  whether  educational-work,  missionary- 
work,  publication-work,  or  whatever  else,  our  women  may 
be  enlisted,  and  be  made  as  actually  as  men,  and  directly 
with  them,  participants  in  it. 

Who  can  anticipate  all  that  would  follow  from  such  a 
systematic  enlistment  of  our  women  in  all  the  activities  of 
our  Church,  from  our  primary  to  our  superior  bodies,  and 
in  all  the  plans  that  may  be  proposed  —  never  as  an  out- 
sider, or  as  an  auxiliary,  but  in  organic  identification  with 
them  ?  Imagine  a  congregation  composed  altogether  of 
men,  of  altogether  of  women,  or  for  the  upbuilding  of  which 
there  was  no  conjunction  of  the  two  in  efibrt !  What  a  dif- 
ferent thing  it  would  be  from  a  congregation  in  which  both 
were  working  earnestly  and  sympathetically  together  !  And 
what  is  thus  true  as  to  the  life  and  strength  and  prosperity 
insured  to  a  single  congregation  or  parish,  by  heartily  enlist- 
ing women  —  not  to  get  up  side-operations,  but  to  make 
common  cause  with  their  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers  for 
the  furtherance  of  the  common  welfare,  is  equally  true  of  a 
whole  denomination.  There  are  some  things  that  men  can 
do  best ;  there  are  other  things  that  women  can  do  best ; 
unite  them,  and  in  proportion  as  they  have  the  real  spirit  of 
work,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  failure  in  any  labor  to  which 
they  put  their  hands. 

Be  it  ours  wisely  to  heed  this  lesson,  and  thus,  in  this  re- 
spect, to  make  the  New  Departure  on  which,  as  to  our 
future,  so  much  depends. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

UNITY. 

In  organization,  the  Fniversalist  Church  is  happily  one 
as  never  before  —  and  as  those  of  little  faith,  amidst  our 
numerous  and  seemingly  fruitless  experiments,  were  accus- 
tomed to  insist  that  we  never  could  be.*  We  are  at  length 
unified  in  our  General  Convention,  in  a  sense  of  common 
interests,  in  devotion  to  a  common  cause.  Perhaps  in  noth- 
ing was  our  Centenary  Year  of  greater  advantage  to  us  than 

*  I  cannot  forbear  here  to  express  regret,  which  must  be  shared  by  all 
who  have  most  carefully  studied  the  subject,  at  the  disposition  whicli  has 
already  showed  itself  in  several  localities  to  '  tinker '  and  modify  the 
Plan  of  Organization  adopted  at  Gloucester,  before  it  has  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  prove  itself.  A  '  uniform  organization  '  was  for  years  the  de- 
sideratum demanded  from  all  parts  of  our  Zion,  and  by  common  con- 
sent it  was  agreed  that  the  Gloucester  Plan,  the  fruit  of  so  much  thought 
and  labor,  and  adopted  with  such  gratifying  unanimity,  had  been  fortu- 
nate in  meeting  this  demand.  It  did  not,  perhaps,  please  any  one  in 
every  minute  particular.  Certainly,  nobody  anticipated  that  it  was  per- 
fect in  all  its  details.  But  it  was  felt  that  its  general  principles  were 
sound,  and  that,  framed  in  the  sincere  eflfort,  as  far  as  possible,  to  meet 
and  harmonize  conflicting  opinions,  it  was  deserving  a  fair  and  thorough 
trial.  It  is  to  be  lamented  that  this  view  seems  not  to  have  found  uni- 
versal acceptance.  Some  of  the  attempts  to  change  the  Plan,  it  is  grati- 
fying to  know,  have  signally  failed.  But  in  other  instances,  local  no- 
tions and  individual  theories  have  been  permitted  to  mar  the  harmony 
of  the  system  —  fortunately,  as  yet,  only  in  minor  points,  but  enough  to 
destroy  the  '  uniformity '  so  much  desired,  as  soon  as  it  seemed  to 
be  attained.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  yet  other  uneasy  theorists  will  pro- 
pose their  changes,  anxious  to  mend  whiit  they  would  only  help  to  spoil. 
Is  it  too  much  to  suggest  that  all  such  further  attempts  for  the  present 
be  quashed.'*  Give  the  Plan  time.  Let  experience  demonstrate  its  im- 
perfections. Then  remedy  them.  Cannot  the  lesson  be  learned  among 
us,  tliat  long-considered  and  laboriously-adjusted  methods  are  not  like- 
ly to  be  much  improved  by  the  hasty  suggestions  of  a  moment,  or  an 
hour,  of  debate  ;  that  no  human  instrument  can  be  framed,  in  all  points, 
to  please  every  local  preference,  or  individual  fancy ;  and,  above  all, 
that,  if  we  are  to  be  a  homogeneous  Church,  the  wise  way  is  for  us  to 
be  content  to  accept  what  the  general  voice  of  our  body  approves  ?  We 
can  never  be  anytliing  but  a  clumsy  piece  of  patch-work,  if  we  cannot 
leara  this  lesson. 

285 


286  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

in  helping  to  nurture  and  consummate  this  feeling  of  Unity, 
and  in  thus  consolidating  us  into  One  National  Church.  It 
did  this  in  various  ways,  and  in  none,  probably,  more  effect- 
ually tlian  through  the  effort  it  incited  to  create  the  Murray 
Fund.  We  needed  the  money  thus  realized,  and  it  will 
prove  of  immense  use  to  us  ;  but  far  beyond  its  value  as 
so  many  thousand  dollars,  was  the  gain  it  brought  us  as. 
East,  Midst,  West,  we  together  put  ourselves  to  the  task  of 
building  this  Central  Memorial  Fund.  It  mattered  little  in 
this  particular  that  some  of  the  States  did  not  come  up  to 
their  quotas,  and  that,  for  this  reason,  the  sum  proposed 
was  not  fully  realized.  The  moral  effect  was  realized  hardly 
less  ;  and  the  talk  about  the  Fund,  the  effort  to  raise  it,  and 
the  fact  that  so  much  was  done  towards  raising  it,  did  more 
to  pervade  us  with  the  sense  of  oneness  we  so  much  needed, 
and  to  knit  us  into  a  practical  and  heartily  co-operative  unity, 
than  folios  of  resolutions,  or  months  of  mere  preaching  or 
argument,  could  have  done  :  and  as  the  Convention,  to  tlie 
full  extent  of  its  ability,  has  set  itself  to  work  in  the  employ- 
ment of  the  means  thus  furnished  —  thinking  nothing  of 
locality,  thinking  only  how  best  to  serve  our  one  cause, 
this  sense  of  unity  has  been  still  further  promoted,  as  it  will 
be  yet  more  and  more  as  the  work  goes  on.  In  this  respect, 
though  doubtless  there  will  be  those,  constitutionally  sour,  or 
crooked,  or  impracticable,  who  will  snarlingly  or  factiously 
talk  about '  ambition,'  and  '  centralization,'  and  '  the  methods 
of  the  fathers,'  the  unity  of  our  Church,  extraordinaries  ex- 
cepted, will  henceforth  take  care  of  itself.  There  is  no  oc- 
casion to  speak  here  of  its  advantages,  or  to  dwell  on  the 
importance  of  doing  all  we  rightly  can  to  foster  and  pre- 
serve it. 

In  another  sense,  however,  this  subject  of  Unity  is  one 
that  is  demanding  our  special  attention,  and  concerning 
which  we  should  at  once  resolve  on  a  New  Departure.  As 
a  people,  we  are  in  most  respects  pervaded  by  a  kind  and 
fraternal  spirit — no  people  more;  but  in  some  other  re- 
spects, this  spirit  is  seriously  lacking.  We  have  too  much 
clannishness,  too  much  suspicion  and  jealousy,  at  our  sec- 
tional centres  ;  too  much  sensitiveness  and  covetous  anx- 
iety touching  purely  personal  and  local  influence  and  ends. 


UNITY.  287 

Boston  looks  askance  at  New  York,  and  Augusta  nervously 
watches  Boston,  and   Cincinnati   is   ready  to   take  up  any 
adverse  criticism  against  '  Cornhill '  or  '  the  Leader  office, 
and  Chicago  and  '  the  West '   do   not  feel  altogether  right 
towards  '  the  East,'  and  '  the  East '  is  not  wholly  without 
corresponding    feelings    towards    '  the    West.'       Supposed 
business  interests  are  mainly  at  the  bottom  of  this  state  of 
things,  though  to  these  is  added  a  half-unconscious  local  or 
sectional  bias,  that  would   be   ashamed   openly   to  confess 
itself,  even  to  itself,  but  that  nevertheless  exists,  and  prac- 
tically asserts  itself  as  an  undesirable  element  in  our  afiairs. 
What  is  the  consequence  ?     The  rivalries  and  competitions 
thus   engendered  come  to  a  head  in  feuds  and  bickerings 
and  mutual  fault-findings  and  accusations,  that  are  not  at 
all  creditable  to  us,  and  that   are  productive   of  anything 
rather  than  the  unity,  and  cordial  good  understanding,  and 
hearty  co-operation,  which  alike  the  dignity  and  the  welfare 
of  our  Church  require.     This  was  illustrated,  not  long  ago, 
by  the  remark  at  one  of  our  centres,  "  As  for  me,  my  inter- 
ests are  all  here,  at :  "    a  remark  happily  rebuked  in 

the  reply,  "  I  am  glad  to  say  I  do  not  limit  the  work  ot  the 

Lord  in  the  earth  to ."     Other  examples,  some  of  them 

more  mortifying,  might  be  mentioned.     But  I  forbear. 

Must  this  state  of  things  continue  ?  No  lover  of  our 
Church  can  consider  it  without  pain.  The  following  ex- 
tract from  a  letter,  called  forth  by  a  specially  mortifying 
illustration  of  this  state  of  things,  from  a  friend  who  has 
had  long  and  favorable  opportunity  to  become  acquainted 
with  and  to  study  it  in  its  various  phases  and  operations, 
does  but  give  voice  to  what  is  in  many  hearts  concern- 
ing it :  "  This  jealousy  among  brethren  is  the  saddest  thing 
I  have  €ver  known  in  our  Church.  If  it  were  only  a  per- 
sonal exhibition,  it  would  deserve  contempt ;  but  its  harm- 
fulness  to  our  cause  fills  me  with  sorrow.  So  out  of  sym- 
pathy am  I  with  the  entire  spirit  and  tendency,  that,  if  I 
were  not  sure  that  we  stand  for  the  eternal  verities,  and 
that,  to  make  our  Church  worthy  its  high  mission,  we  must 
stand  inside  and  fight  for  it,  I  should  be  tempted  to  step 
quietly  out  from  all  this  littleness  that  seems  to  have  entered 
into  us.     Is  it  true  that  we  who  ought  to  be  the  noblest, 


288  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

most  generous,  most  tolerant,  large-hearted  and  Christ-like 
people  in  the  world,  are  the  most  self-seeking  and  little- 
souled  ?  .   .   .  Can  we  do  nothing  about  it  ?  " 

This  letter  was  for  my  private  eye  ;  but  I  have  felt  justi- 
fied in  using  this  portion  of  it,  because  it  means  so  much 
touching  the  matter  under  treatment,  and  because  it  indi- 
cates why  I  have  deemed  the  subject  important  enough  to 
call  for  a  separate  chapter.  The  letter,  as  I  have  since  per- 
sonally said  to  the  writer,  was  somewhat  too  much  an  over- 
flow of  feeling,  unduly  disheartened  by  the  mortifying  exhi- 
bition which  suggested  it.  The  idea  of  '  stepping  out '  of 
our  Church,  quietly  or  otherwise,  because  anything  in  it 
fails  to  go  just  as  we  would  have  it,  is  one  not  to  be  for  a 
moment  entertained  by  any  brave  or  loyal  soul.  It  is  a 
Providential  Church,  not  only  '  standing  for  the  eternal  veri- 
ties,' but  called  of  God  to  a  great  work  ;  and,  except  upon 
contingencies  altogether  improbable,  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
Universalist  to  stand  by  it,  seeking  to  correct  whatever  in 
it  may  need  correction,  and  giving  every  possible  contribu- 
tion of  brain  and  heart  to  make  it  the  efficient  instrument 
in  the  world's  redemption  God  would  have  it.  And  as  to 
our  being  more  '  self-seeking  '  or  '  little-souled '  than  our 
neighbors  of  other  Churches,  there  is  no  reason  for  any  such 
thought.  Looking  as  sharply  behind  their  scenes  as  we  do 
behind  our  own,  we  should  find  that  they — the  best  of  them 
—  have  their  jealousies,  heart-burnings  and  bickerings  quite 
as  much  as  we,  —  some  of  them  far  more;  and  one  has  only 
to  read  their  papers  to  be  furnished  with  evidence  of  bad 
temper  as  flagrant,  and  of  narrowness  and  littleness  as 
marked,  as  any  that  ours  have  ever  shown.  This  is  noth- 
ing to  our  credit,  it  is  true,  and  in  no  way  lessens  our  fault, 
or  our  danger,  on  account  of  these  things  so  far  as  they 
exist  among  us.  But  it  admonishes  us  not  to  do  ourselves 
injustice  by  thinking  that  we  are  worse  than  we  are,  and 
suggests  that  the  vrrong  in  question  comes  from  what  is 
common  to  all  in  the  weakness  of  our  human  nature,  and 
not  from  any  littleness  or  perversity  peculiar  to  us. 

But  though  the  letter  is  open  to  criticism  and  deduction  on 
these  two  points,  its  main  burden  is  none  the  less  weighty. 
The  personal  aims  and  feeling  of  which  it  speaks  are  not  a 


UNITY.  289 

whit  less  serious  or  harmful  than  it  avers.  They  are  evil, 
and  work  only  mischief,  everywhere.  Especially  to  our  dis- 
credit, 60  far  as  they  are  suffered  to  have  place  among  us, 
because  so  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  our  faith,  they  are 
inimical  to  evcay  interest  of  our  Church,  as  well  as  utterly 
at  war  witli  those  relations  which  should  be  cultivated 
among  brethren  professing  to  love  the  same  Lord,  and  to  be 
devoted  to  the  same  great  ends. 

Jealousy  and  clannish  feuds  and  selfish  competitions,  open 
or  secret,  are  —  does  it  need  to  be  said  ?  —  necessarily  ele- 
ments of  weakness  always,  as  they  are  always  signs  of  per- 
sonal narrowness  and  littleness  ;  and  till  they  cease  among 
us,  and  we  come  practically  to  that  Unity  which  the  cardi- 
nal principles  of  our  faith  demand,  whatever  else  may  be  in 
our  favor,  we  can  never  be  the  Church  we  should  be  ambi- 
tious to  become,  breathing  all  of  us  the  inspiration  of  a 
common  life,  and  marching  to  the  music  of  one  grand  com- 
mon purpose.  A  great  common  aim  lifts  all  who  really 
share  it  out  of  themselves  and  above  any  mercenariness  of 
spirit,  rendering  them,  in  the  enthusiasm  that  possesses 
them,  incapable  of  feuds,  or  jealousies,  or  a  mean  regard  to 
self,  because  blending  them  in  the  rhythm  that  makes  all 
movement  and  feeling  one.  This  is  what  we  need,  and  is 
what  we  shall  surely  have,  so  far  as  the  spirit  of  Christ  as 
we  interpret  him  takes  possession  of  our  hearts.  And  hav- 
ing it,  how  small  and  paltry  will  seem  any  thought  of  pri- 
vate, or  personal,  or  local  interests,  such  as  now  too  much 
asserts  itself,  compared  with  the  one  great  interest  that 
rightfully  claims  to  be  supreme  in  our  regards  1 

I  deal  with  this  subject  in  no  fanciful  or  sentimental  view 
of  it.  I  overlook  nothing  that  legitimately  belongs  to  what 
is  called  the  practical  and  business  side  of  it.  ,Some 
thoughtfulness  of  self,  duly  subordinated  to  what  is  para- 
mount, we  shall  all  agree,  is  not  only  allowable,  but  is  a 
part  of  our  fluty ;  and  Boston  and  Chicago  and  Augusta 
and  Cincinnati  and  New  York  do  well  thus  to  think  of 
themselves,  and  how  they  may  each  build  up  a  business 
that  shall  benefit  our  cause  and  at  the  same  time  yield  a 
fair  return  to  their  own  pockets.  But  nobody  has  a  patent 
on  Universalism  ;  nor  is  the  Universalist  Church,  or  any 
19 


290  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

portion  of  it,  a  field  to  be  reaped,  or  a  flock  of  sheep  to 
be  sheared,  for  anybody's  particular  benefit.  A  great  deal 
would  be  gained  if  this  could  be  understood.  The  assump- 
tion of  something  quite  different  from  this  is  the  fallacy 
which  underlies  most  of  our  feuds  and  bickerings,  and  so 
gives  chief  occasion  for  the  lack  of  unity  here  under  notice. 
It  seems  strangely  to  have  been  taken  for  granted  that  indi- 
viduals or  establishments  have  a  right  virtually  to  divide 
our  Church-field  into  farms,  of  which  special  ownership,  and 
within  which  special  '  rights '  to  do  business  and  to  make 
money,  may  be  claimed,  and  that,  if  the  lines  of  one  of 
these  several  farms  or  divisions  are  crossed,  lo  1  just  reason 
is  given  to  the  special  occupant  for  whining,  remonstrance 
and  jealous  complaint.  But  on  what  basis  of  fact  or  com- 
mon sense  does  any  such  assumption  rest  ?  Or,  who  or 
what  are  Augusta  and  Boston  and  Cincinnati  and  Chicago 
and  New  York,  or  either  of  them,  that  they  should  thus 
claim  ownership  of  me,  or  of  the  church  of  which  I  am 
pastoi',  or  of  any  other  minister,  or  believer,  or  church  in 
our  communion  ?  "  The  field  is  the  world  ;  "  and  '  an  open 
field  and  fair  play '  is  the  only  motto  for  those  who  under- 
take to  do  business  in  the  name  of  Universalism,  as  it  is  for 
those  engaged  in  any  other  honorable  calling.  Obligations 
of  courtesy  and  gentlemanly  dealing,  of  course,  there  are  ; 
but  all  good  books,  whatever  their  imprint,  have  an  equal 
right  to  find  buyers,  and  the  best  book  is  entitled  to  com- 
mand the  market.  For  like  reasons,  all  religious  journals 
have  an  equal  right  to  invito  and  win  subscribers  wherever 
they  can  ;  and  the  best  deserves  to  have  the  largest  sub- 
scription list,  whatever  the  locality  in  which  it  is  published. 
The  thing  to  be  served  is  not  anybody's  private  interest, 
but  Universalism,  held  by  us  as  the  truth  of  God  ;  and  the 
chief  ends  to  be  accomplished  are  not  the  profits  of  any 
establishment,  but  the  extension  and  upbuilding  of  the  Uni- 
VERSALiST  Church.  To  these  everything  else  i^  secondary  ; 
and  these  have  a  right  to  insist  on  the  unobstructed  sei'vice 
of  the  best  instruments  in  their  behalf,  come  they  whence, 
or  be  they  in  whose  hands,  they  may.  If  anybody  can 
serve  these,  and  in  so  doing  serve  themselves,  well ;  but  no 
person  or  establishment  is  warranted  in  setting  up  a  special 


UNITY.  291 

claim  to  any  particulai'  portion  of  our  field,  demanding  that 
others,  whatever  the  merit  of  their  wares,  shall  keep  away 
from  it,  or  in  regarding  anybody  else  as  a  trespasser,  to  be 
assailed  with  protests,  or  to  be  pelted  with  hard  names,  if, 
in  an  honorable  way,  he  seeks  to  find  patrons  or  customers 
in  it.  Could  this  but  be  once  seen  to  be  the  true  ground  in 
respect  to  this  subject,  to  be  occupied  in  a  common  spirit 
of  fraternal  courtesy,  the  main  cause  of  our  jealousies  and 
fretting  discords  would  be  gone.  Everything  for  Universal- 
ism,  and  nothing  for  persons  or  places  except  as  secondary  to 
it,  would  be  the  cry  of  all  our  hearts  ;  and  with  free  scope 
for  brotherly  competition  in  the  effort  to  produce  what  is 
worthiest,  all  legitimate  personal  or  local  interests  would 
find  themselves  harmonized  and  best  promoted  in  the  mutual 
regard  for  our  truth  and  our  Church  which  would  make 
us  one. 

It  was  the  dream  of  Horace  Greeley's  life,  to  see  all  our 
papers  and  publishing  interests  consolidated  into  an  estab- 
lishment that  should  unite  our  whole  people  in  loyalty  to  it, 
issuing  a  journal  worthy  of  our  Church,  and  sending  out 
books,  tracts  and  periodicals  broadcast  over  the  land.  He 
had  his  impracticable  side  ;  but  it  is  conceded  that  his  judg- 
ment as  to  papers  was  worth  something.  Can  we  doubt, 
that  could  his  dream  be  realized,  it  would  do  for  us  more 
than  any  other  single  agency  could  ?  But  the  time  is  not 
ripe  for  this.  Even  if  those  now  controlling  our  several 
publishing  interests  should  be  moved  to  come  into  the  prop- 
osition, the  personal,  local,  clannish  element  is  yet  so  strong 
with  some  among  us,  that  new  proposals  for  papers  would 
doubtless  very  soon  be  issued  from  these  same  sections, 
enforced  by  glowing  appeals  to  local  prejudice  and  local 
pride,  and  by  frightful  pictures  of  the  dangers  of  '  cen- 
tralization,' and,  probably,  by  eloquent  pleas  for  '  individ- 
ual enterprise  '  ;  and  there  would  unquestionably  be  enough 
to  respond  as  subscribers  to  put  '  other  Richmonds  '  into 
the  field  at  once.  So  long  as  localism  and  a  jealousy  of 
'  centralization  '  at  all  survive  among  us,  there  will  be  those 
who  will  appeal  to  and  seek  to  feed  upon  them.  Such  is 
human  nature.  And  so  long,  it  will  be  in  vain  —  so  far  as  any 
such  result  is  immediately  concerned  —  to  set  forth,  no  mat- 


292  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

ter  how  clearly,  the  advantages  of  the  consolidation  which 
Mr.  Greeley  proposed,  or  to  show  how  much  better  it  is  that 
the  profits  of  our  various  publications  should  go  into  the  .treas- 
ury of  our  Church,  for  Church-extension  and  Church-work, 
than  that  they  should  go  into  the  pockets  of  individuals, 
for  their  personal  enrichment,  whatever  bonus  they  may  be 
willing  to  pay  for  the  sake  of  so  enriching  themselves. 
But  truth  and  good  sense  will  finally  prevail.  In  this  assur- 
ance, it  is  for  those  who  believe  in  Mr.  Greeley's  general 
plan,  to  keep  it  in  agitation,  educating  our  people  to  see 
what  would  be  gained  by  it,  and  so  preparing  for  the  time 
when  our  whole  Church  shall  say.  Enough  of  divided  and 
personal  publication  interests.  Let  them  coalesce,  the  pos- 
session of  the  Church,  to  help,  by  whatsoever  they  shall 
yield,  to  promote  Church-ends.  The  amounts  that  some  of 
our  publishers  are  willing  to  pay  for  the  sake  of  keeping  the 
field  only  indicate  the  profits  they  make,  and  that  might,  on 
Mr.  Greeley's  plan,  be  realized  for  our  Church-work. 

In  the  mean  time,  let  us  resolve  on  the  New  Departure 
herein  seen  to  be  so  demanded  by  every  consideration  touch- 
ing our  Church's  welfare.  The  remedy  for  the  state  of 
things  of  which  this  chapter  treats  is  in  our  hands.  What 
a  shame  it  is  to  us,  and  what  evil  is  likely  to  come  of  it, 
are  apparent.  Let  ministers  and  people,  with  one  consent, 
unite  to  say.  We  will  have  no  more  of  it,  enforcing  their 
command  by  means  readily  at  hand,  and  which  those  mainly 
at  fault  will  be  sure  to  feel.  If  the  people  should  resolve, 
and  eveiy  sin  against  their  resolve  should  be  followed  by  a 
deluge  of  protests,  ending  with,  Cease,  or  stop  my  paper  I 
we  may  be  sure  their  will  would  be  speedily  heeded.  The 
word  not  only  of  the  Apostle,  but  of  the  Master  to  us  is, 
"  Walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  ye  are  called, 
with  all  lowliness  and  meekness,  with  loug-sufiering,  forbear- 
ing one  another  in  love."  Be  it  ours,  all  of  us,  to  ohcj 
this  word,  laying  aside  these  sins  which  so  easily  beset  us, 
forgetting  self  in  devotion  to  our  cause,  and  rising  above  all 
personal  and  local  aims  in  the  one  purpose  to  love  and  serve 
our  Church  "  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit,  in  the  bond  of 
peace." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

GIVING. 

Our  early  training  and  traditions  were  all  against  religious 
Giving.  Rebounding  from  the  beliefs  of  the  Church,  as 
there  has  been  occasion  several  times  to  repeat,  we  re- 
bounded from  and  antagonized  its  methods  also  ;  and  among 
these  methods,  none,  perhaps,  were  more  stiffly  opposed 
than  the  system  of  Church  Beneficence.  It  was  denounced 
as  priestcraft,  and  as  part  of  a  system  designed  to  subject 
the  country  to  sectarian  domination,  and  to  exercise  a  bale- 
ful influence  on  our  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Patriotism 
as  well  as  anti-orthodoxy  was  appealed  to,  to  discourage 
and  frown  upon  it.  These  appeals,  unfortunately,  were 
vigorously  seconded  by  the  natural  selfishness  of  the  human 
heart,  and  a  cordial  welcome  was  thus  insured  for  the  teach- 
ing which  accompanied  them.  So  we  grew  up,  with  our 
education  and  our  selfishness  alike  concurring  to  render  us 
averse  to  systematic  contributions  for  religious  ends.  Oc- 
casional efforts  in  this  direction  appear  to  have  been  made, 
notwithstanding  the  general  current  of  denominational  sen- 
timent in  this  particular  ;  and  there  ai'e  even  indications 
that  there  was  a  time  in  our  early  history  when  our  parishes 
were  expected  to  make  annual  contributions  to  our  Con- 
vention —  though  precisely  for  what  purpose  is  not  clear. 
These  attempts,  however,  were  feeble  and  spasmodic,  and 
seem  not  to  have  been  of  much  avail.  As  the  result,  amidst 
the  constant  warfare  against '  sectarian  begging,'  and  anathe- 
mas as  constant  against  all  '  priestly  devices  '  for  drawing 
money  from  the  people's  pockets,  we  naturally  became  a 
people  bristling  with  hostile  prejudices  against  anj'  and  all 
efforts  to  raise  money  for  religious  purposes,  outside  ordi- 
nary parish  expenses,  and  a  rare  contribution  in  response 
to  some  special  appeal. 

Under  these  circumstances,  when  the  necessities  of  our 

293 


294  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

work  and  the  demand  for  something  like  enterprise  and  edu- 
cational provisions  on  our  part  began  to  press,  we  had  the 
whole  previous  education  of  years  to  unlearn,  and  the  preju- 
dices so  carefully  fostered  to  conquer  and  outgrow.  As 
might  have  been  expected,  our  first  schools  begged  and 
starved  —  as  was  painfully  exemplified  in  the  early  history 
of  Clinton,  not  to  speak  of  others  of  the  same  class,  and  in 
the  struggles  by  which  our  Theological  School  at  Canton 
for  a  long  time  just  kept  its  head  above  water  ;  and  till  very 
recently  our  Missionary  efibrts,  after  longer  or  shorter  at- 
tempts to  live,  invariably  came  to  an  untimely  end,  with  this 
verdict  to  be  rendered  above  their  remains  :  Died  of  the  lack 
of  money,  because  of  the  indisposition  of  the  people  to  give. 
Whatever  the  call  sent  out  for  purposes  of  Church-extension, 
it  was  sure  to  be  treated  with  neglect  by  most  of  our  minis- 
ters and  parishes,  while  it  received  but  scanty  response 
from  those  who  responded  at  all ;  and  when  it  was  seriously 
proposed  to  go  before  the  denomination  for  One  Hundred 
Thousand  Dollars,  to  establish  Tufts  College,  who  that  was 
then  in  the  field  will  ever  forget  how  wild  the  project  was 
thought  by  many  to  be,  or  how  hands  were  lifted,  and  eye- 
brows raised,  among  our  parishes  all  over  the  land,  at  the 
utter  hardihood  of  such  an  undertaking  ? 

We  have  been  bravely  learning  since  then,  and  an  im- 
mense advance  has  been  made  in  the  generous  disposition 
and  habits  of  our  people.  Schools  and  colleges  have  been 
endowed  ;  the  Murray  Fund  —  so  much  of  it  as  we  have — • 
has  been  raised ;  the  honorable  record  of  our  Centenary 
Year  has  been  made ;  church-debts  have  been  paid,  and 
splendid  church-edifices  have  been  reared  ;  and  various  gifts, 
scattered  along  our  path,  have  told  of  open  hands  and  lib- 
eral hearts.  But  we  have  as  yet  simply  begun  to  learn  and 
to  do  in  this  respect  —  as  in  most  others.  We  have  only 
to  look  at  our  Murray  Fund,  still  incomplete,  —  and  to 
reckon  up  the  unfilled  quotas  of  the  Special  Fund,  called  for 
to  liquidate  the  debt  incurred  mainly  by  the  mistaken  policy 
of  pouring  all  our  Centenary  receipts  into  the  Murray  Fund, 
leaving  the  expenses  to  be  afterwards  provided  for,  — 
and  to  consider  the  meagre  revenue  from  the  Missionary 
Boxes  for  the  year  past,  and  especially  have  only  to  read 


GIVING.  295 

over  the  returns  of  the  last  collection  under  the  rules  of  our 
Convention,  and  to  see  how  comparatively  small  is  the  num- 
ber of  parishes  (one  hundred  and  sixty-four  out  of  a  reported 
aggregate  of  nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine)  which  have  taken 
the  collection,  and  how  comparatively  small  are  most  of  the 
amounts  given  by  those  which  have  taken  it,  to  perceive 
that  we  have  a  great  deal  more  to  learn,  and  a  vast  advance 
yet  further  to  make,  ere  we  shall  fulfil  our  obligations  by 
contributing  the  resources  which  our  opportunities  and  our 
work  require. 

Here,  then,  is  a  call  for  a  New  Departure  which  we  can- 
not slight,  if  we  are  a  Church  of  Christ,  in  this  world  to 
stay.  God  be  thanked  for  all  we  have  wrought  and  given  ! 
Let  there  be  no  scolding  or  fault-finding  towards  anybody  — 
only  hearty  commendation  and  encouragement  for  those  who, 
in  any  measure,  have  done  their  duty.  But  we  must  recog- 
nize the  facts  as  they  are,  and  learn  the  lesson  of  an  in- 
creased generosity.  There  must  be  more  freedom,  and 
largeness,  and  universality  of  giving,  or  the  wheels  of  our 
activities  cannot  go  on.  Not  some,  but  all  of  our  ministers 
must  be  in  sympathy  with  what  as  a  Church  we  are  trying 
to  do,  and  enjoin  on  their  hearers  the  duty  of  participating 
as  they  are  able  in  these  gifts  to  God  and  the  Church  —  en- 
forcing their  words  by  themselves  giving  as  they  can  ;  not 
a  part,  but  all  of  our  parishes  must  enroll  themselves  among 
those  faithful  in  whatever  collections  or  contributions  the 
rules  of  our  Convention  or  the  exigencies  of  our  work  re- 
quire ;  and  more  and  more  we  must  all  feel  the  imperative- 
ness alike  of  the  demand  and  of  the  obligation  that  we  '  lay 
by  us  in  store,  as  God  has  prospered  us,'  for  the  furtlier- 
ance  of  our  truth,  and  having  remembered  it  according  to 
this  ratio  while  living,  those  blessed  with  means  must  fail 
not  to  bequeath  something  of  the  bounty  God  has  bestowed, 
to  help  it  forward,  when  they  die. 

Dollars  are  'the  sinews  of  war,'  as  we  witnessed  to  our 
cost,  when  it  became  necessary  to  roll  up  a  debt  of  such 
frightful  proportions  in  our  contest  with  treason,  for  the  sal- 
vation of  our  republic.  They  are  equally  the  sinews  of  all 
organized  effort.  Little  can  be  done  in  this  world,  in  any 
field,  without  them.     Commerce  needs  them.     But  so,  not 


296  OUE   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

less,  do  labor  and  law,  and  art,  and  philanthropy,  and  re- 
ligion ;  and  XJniversalism  cannot  be  organized  and  pushed, 
nor  our  Church  make  itself  felt  to  widest  purpose,  save  as 
Universalists  catch  the  impulse  of  generosity,  and  learn  the 
grace  of  Giving.  The  sooner  we  all  awake,  in  the  pulpit 
and  out  of  it,  to  a  thorough  comprehension  of  this  fact,  the 
better.  "Give,"  said  our  Lord,  "and  it  shall  be  given 
unto  you."  A  great  principle  underlies  these  words.  "There 
is  that  scattereth,  and  yet  increaseth  ;  and  there  is  that 
withholdeth  more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  poverty. 
The  liberal  soul  shall  be  made  fat ;  and  he  that  watereth 
shall  be  watered  also  himself."  This  is  the  Providential 
law  —  as  true  of  churches  or  communities  as  of  individuals  ; 
and  no  church  or  denomination  ever  has  prospered,  or  ever 
can  prosper,  except  on  the  condition  thus  ordained.  Christ 
gave  himself,  and  those  who  took  up  his  work  gave  their 
money,  —  those  of  them  who  had  it,  —  themselves,  their  all, 
for  his  sake  :  how  else  could  the  first  Christian  Church  have 
been  planted,  or  could  Christianity  itself  have  become  a 
power  in  the  world?  And  all  through  Christian  history, 
the  Church  that  has  opened  its  hands  and  given  the  most, 
other  things  being  equal,  has  been  the  Church  which  has 
taken  widest  hold  of  the  popular  heart,  and  gathered  most 
souls  about  its  altars. 

This  is  still  the  law  ;  and  under  it  our  future  is  to  be  deter- 
mined. If,  therefore,  we  have  really  any  desire  to  be  a  great 
Church,  helping  to  save  the  world,  here  is  one  of  the  inex- 
orable conditions  on  which  alone  we  can  become  so  :  We 
must  give,  and  giving  henceforth  must  be  the  rule  and  not  the 
exception  among  us.  Think  of  the  munificent  donations  and 
bequests  of  which  we  are  constantly  hearing,  bestowed  for 
educational  and  church-uses  by  members  of  sister  denomina- 
tions—  and  then  of  the  innumerable  little  streams  besides  that 
are  constantly  flowing  into  their  treasuries !  Making  the  most 
of  them,  how  diminutive  is  our  record,  and  how  paltry  our 
gifts  in  comparison  1  It  is  time  for  us  more  profoundly  to 
feel  the  rebuke,  and  to  respond  to  the  summons,  that  comes 
to  us  in  such  a  comparison.  We  claim  to  have  the  faith  most 
precious  in  itself,  and  that  souls  and  the  world  most  need. 
How,  then,  according  to  our  means,  can  we  be  satisfied  with 


GIVING.  297 

beinj;^  less  g-encroua  in  our  service  of  it  than  are  others  in  their 
service  of  narrower  and  meaner  faiths  ?  What  is  the  specta- 
cle we  present,  and  the  conclusion  we  invite,  if  we  are  so  ? 
It  is  very  well  for  us  to  talk  about  the  glory  and  excellence 
of  Universalism,  and  its  worth  to  souls,  and  the  world's  need 
of  it :  for  all  this  is  true.  But  how  much  are  we  sacrificing, 
how  much  are  we  giving,  how  miich  are  wo  doing  for  it  ? 
This  is  the  question  that  goes  down  underneath  all  talk,  and 
tells  the  real  story  of  our  love  for  Universalism  and  our 
sense  of  its  importance.  And  however  beautiful  or  however 
true  it  may  be,  all  talk  about  Universalism,  or  anybody's 
need  of  it,  is  mockery,  is  almost  blasphemy,  on  the  lips  of 
any  man  or  woman  who  is  not  giving  for  it  as  he  or  she  is 
able.  Having  the  best  faith,  Universalists  ought  to  show 
themselves  appreciative  of  it,  quickened  and  enlarged  by  it ; 
and  this  is  what  we  must  show,  learning  the  lesson  of 
Church  Beneficence  as  others  learned  it  long  ago,  or  our 
opportunities  will  be  wasted,  and  the  work  we  are  wanted 
to  do  will  be  transferred  to  those  willing  to  pay  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  doing  it.  To  a  noble  mind,  money  is  of  no  value  in 
itself.  Its  value  is  solely  in  its  uses.  And  no  man  is  a 
Universalist  really  who,  having  money,  does  not  regard  it 
as  God's  bounty,  put  into  his  hands  as  a  means  of  doing 
good,  and  therefore  give  according  to  his  ability,  glad  to 
account  himself  God's  almoner  for  the  spread  of  His  truth 
in  the  extension  of  our  Church.  What  we  want  in  this  re- 
spect, and  must  have,  if  we  are  to  be  a  living  and  growing 
Church,  is  a  proper  spirit  of  simple  stewardship,  mindful  al- 
ways of  Paul's  axiom,  "It  is  required  in  stewards  that  a 
man  be  found  faithful." 

There  are  those  who  think  we  have  had  enough  of  this  talk 
about  money.  When,  they  impatiently  ask,  are  our  parishes 
and  people  to  have  relief  from  these  incessant  appeals,  that, 
like  the  daughters  of  Solomon's  horse-leech,  are  forever  cry- 
ing, Give,  give  ?  Let  such  understand  that,  till  the  Church- 
militant  becomes  the  Church-triumphant,  and  the  world  is 
redeemed,  the  only  possible  answer  to  their  inquiry  is. 
Never.  As  long  as  money  is  needed  for  anything  in  this 
world,  it  will  be  needed  for  the  cause  of  Christ ;  and  as 
long  as  the  Universalist  Church  lives  and  tries  to  grow,  — 


298  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

and  it  will  die,  and  deserve  to  die,  whenever  it  ceases  to  try 
to  grow,  —  the  cry  will  be,  Money,  money,  for  the  work  of 
the  Lord.  There  is  no  discharge  from  this  war.  And  the 
more  we  give,  reaping  results  from  what  we  give,  the  more 
we  shall  have  to  give  —  because  our  field  will  broaden,  our 
opportunities  multiply,  our  work  increase,  as  the  calls  to 
which  we  shall  have  to  attend  will  become  more  numerous 
and  more  importunate.  Only  by  getting  out  of  our  Church, 
and  out  of  all  churches,  and  out  of  the  world,  can  these 
questioners  get  relief  from  the  appeal  to  give. 

Nor  will  these  calls  for  money,  as  our  Church  will  urge 
them,  ever  exceed  our  ability  to  answer  them.  There  was 
a  time  when  we  were  a  poor  people,  and  when  great  under- 
takings were  impossible  to  us  because  we  lacked  the  means 
to  carry  them  forward.  That  time  has  happily  ceased. 
With  comparatively  few  very  rich,  we  have  few  very  poor. 
We  are  mainly  constituted  of  the  great  middle  class  — 
among  whom  wealth  is  seldom  concentrated  in  large  for- 
tunes, but  who  have  a  great  deal  of  diffused  wealth.  Of 
this  we  have  our  share,  making  us  rich, — not  as  rich  as 
some  other  churches,  but  rich  nevertheless,  with  an  ag- 
gregate wealth  that  would  surprise  us  should  we  see  it 
stated  in  the  actual  figures.  We  have  the  means,  there- 
fore, to  do  whatever  we  may  desire,  or  the  demands  of  our 
cause  make  necessary ;  and  however  large  our  plans,  not 
one  of  them  will  need  fail  if  we  can  but  have  all  our  pocket- 
books  baptized  and  consecrated  as  they  should  be.  There 
are  too  many,  unfortunately,  who  fail  to  consider  this,  and 
who  are  still  gauging  our  ability  by  the  old  standard  of  our 
former  poverty  instead  of  the  new  standard  of  our  present 
afiluence.  All  such  gauging  should  cease.  Making  all  due 
allowance  for  parishes  that  are  weak,  and  struggling,  and 
poor,  God  and  the  world  have  a  right  to  expect  that  wo 
shall  devise  and  give  according  to  our  real  possessions  ; 
and  we  shall  stand  condemned  and  shamed  if  we  fail  to 
do   60. 

We  are,  indeed,  to  guard  against  impatience  and  dis- 
appointment, and  others,  watching  us,  should  guard  against 
doing  us  injustice,  if  the  lesson  of  Giving  is  not  learned 
among  us  as  rapidly  as  it  might  be.     It  is  slow  learning 


GIVING.  299 

hard  lessons,  even  when  there  is  nothing  to  bo  unlearned. 
How  much  slower  it  must  be  wheu  there  is  so  much  to 
unlearn  as  in  our  case  in  respect  to  this  subject  1  Most 
unreasonable,  manifestly,  it  would  be  to  expect  that  a  peo- 
ple not  simply  so  luiti'ained  in  systematic  giving'  for  church 
purposes,  but  drilled  quite  to  the  contrary,  should  at  once 
rise  out  of  the  indisposition  and  irresponsivencss  in  which 
they  have  been  educated,  into  the  most  generous  compre- 
hension of  duty,  and  pour  out  their  gifts  with  the  freedom 
and  readiness  of  those  who,  through  half  a  dozen  genera- 
tions, have  been  trained  to  this  very  thing.  Time  is  re- 
quired, in  this  as  in  everything  else.  Giving  is  a  habit 
to  be  acquired,  a  grace  to  be  cultivated,  an  attainment  to 
be  grown  into. 

But  while  all  this  is  to  be  duly  taken  into  account,  to 
prevent  impatience  and  unreasonable  expectations  of  imme- 
diate results,  our  obligations  are  none  the  less  clear  or 
imperative,  and  each  year  ought  to  show  something  gained, 
and  as  the  consequence,  a  larger  number  of  collections,  and 
more  bequests,  and  an  increase  of  individual  gifts,  both  aa 
to  number  and  amounts,  and  so  a  more  gratifying  sum- 
total  of  contributions  for  the  endowment  and  extension  of 
our  Church.  How  can  we  look  for  the  confidence  or  respect 
of  other  churches,  or  of  the  world,  if  it  is  not  so?  This  is 
a  very  real  thing  with  us  ;  and  more  and  more  we  should 
outgrow  our  indifference  and  irresponsivencss,  our  narrow 
and  selfish  ideas,  and  broaden  into  a  beneficence  as  large- 
eyed  and  thoughtful  and  broad-handed  as  the  Gospel  whose 
name  we  bear.  How  we  should  give,  if  we  should  give  iu 
proportion  to  the  breadth  and  generosity  of  this  !  Especially 
should  we  make  haste  to  outgrow  and  put  away  from  us  the 
fancy  which  so  asserts  itself  in  the  minds  of  not  a  few  of 
our  ministers  and  people,  that  whatever  is  bestowed  for 
work  away  from  home  is  so  much  taken  from  the  resources 
of  home-interests,  necessarily  lessening  to  this  extent  the 
minister's  means  of  living  and  the  ability  of  the  parish  to 
provide  for  its  own  support.  Perhaps  there  is  no  impression 
more  mischievous  than  this,  in  hindering  the  general  response 
we  ought  to  have  to  the  calls  of  our  Convention  and  our 
cause.     But  it  is  totally   unfounded,   besides   being   very 


300  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

narrow  and  selfish.  No  impression  was  ever  more  thoroughly 
disproved  by  all  experience.  As,  invariably,  the  men  and 
women  who  are  giving  most  frequently  are  they  who  give 
most  willingly,  so,  as  universally,  the  parishes  which  most 
cordiall}'  and  liberally  put  themselves  into  accord  with 
general  church-plans  and  give  for  church-work,  are  the  very 
parishes  which  are  found  most  freely  and  punctually  meeting 
all  home  demands.  Tliis  is  in  the  nature  of  things.  Giving 
being,  as  has  been  said,  a  habit,  to  be  acquired,  it,  like  all 
other  habits,  grows  upon  us  as  it  is  practised.  That  genial 
brother  and  faithful  minister,  Otis  A.  Skinner  —  the  story 
of  whose  good  life  and  tragic  death  ought  some  time  to  be 
fitly  told  —  was  accustomed  during  his  first  canvass  for 
Tufts  College  to  illustrate  this  by  reminding  the  people,  in 
his  pleasant  way,  that  if  one  wishes  his  cow  to  be  a  good, 
free  milker,  he  must  see  that  she  is  milked  regularly,  every 
day.  If  she  is  not,  she  '  dries  up.'  And  though  the 
illustration  is  a  little  homely,  and  perhaps  invites  a  repartee 
as  to  the  priestly  milking  of  the  flock,  it  is  nevertheless  apt 
and  suggestive.  The  way  to  get  people  to  giving  most 
readily  is  to  accustom  them  to  giving  —  guarding  of  course 
against  unreasonable  and  excessive  calls.  The  clasps  of 
purses  become  rusty  and  hard  to  open  in  proportion  as  they 
are  unused  ;  and  the  people  whose  hands  it  is  most  difficult 
to  move  into  their  pockets  are  those  who  never  give  — not, 
usually,  because  they  are  stingy,  but  because  they  have 
not  formed  the  habit  of  giving.  For  this  reason,  the  surest 
plan  for  making  a  parish  prompt  and  liberal  at  home,  is  to 
enlist  its  sympathies  and  open  the  springs  of  its  generosity 
with  reference  to  the  work  of  the  church  abroad,  l^his 
is  the  rod  of  Moses  which  brings  water  even  from  the 
rock. 

There  are  two  things,  particularly,  which  we  want  in 
respect  to  this  subject : 

1.  We  want  among  our  people  a  sense  of  the  fact  that 
their  religion  is  one  of  the  objects  which  have  a  paramount 
right  to  their  money.  The  idea  now  is,  too  generally,  that 
religion  and  the  church  are  among  the  last  and  the  least  of 
these  objects ;  that,  in  fact,  it  is  doubtful  whether  they 
have  any  real  claim  upon  what  we  pay  for  them  ;  and  that, 


1 


GIVING.  301 

if  they  have,  it  is  rather  by  way  of  gratuity  —  because  of 
our  generosity,  and  not  by  way  of  right  —  because  of  any 
valid  consideration  which  they  can  plead.  It  is  time  that 
all  such  conceptions  of  the  subject  were  exploded.  Let  any 
man  consider  what  Christianity  has  put  into  the  world,  and 
ask,  whatever  his  cliaracter  or  possessions,  what  he  would 
have,  or  be,  were  Christianity  and  all  it  has  done  for  him 
and  given  to  him  taken  out  of  his  life,  and  out  of  the  circum- 
stances amidst  which  his  lot  is  cast,  —  or  let  him  con- 
sider, so  far  as  he  has  any  actual  faith  in  Christ,  and  es- 
pecially in  our  gospel  of  Universalism,  what  amount  of 
money  would  purchase  it,  and  he  will  soon  see  something 
of  his  debt  to  Christ,  and  something  of  what  is  the  claim 
of  his  religion  and  his  church  to  be  counted  first  among  the 
things  to  which  his  money  belongs.  Next  to  his  home  and 
his  family,  there  is  nothing  for  which  an 3'  man  is  under 
such  obligation  to  pay  as  he  is  to  pay  for  his  religion  and 
his  church  ;  and  neither  among  us  nor  others  will  this  matter 
of  Religious  Giving  command  the  action  to  which  it  is  en- 
titled until  we  all  settle  down  into  the  i-ecognition  of  our 
church-calls  as  among  the  primary  and  legitimate  calls 
which  must  be  met  just  as  much  as  a  business  note,  or  the 
education  of  our  children.     Then, 

2.  We  want  a  regular  system  of  Giving.  I  shall  not 
here  attempt  to  outline  any  such  system.  Each  person  and 
family  can  best  determine  this  for  themselves.  Some  men 
assign  a  fixed  portion  of  their  income  for  charitable  and  re- 
ligious purposes  —  like  the  merchant  who,  having  read 
Jacob's  vow,  "  Of  all  that  Thou  shalt  give  me,  I  will  surely 
give  the  tenth  unto  Thee,"  opened  a  formal  account  with 
0.  P.  J.  —  the  Old  Patriarch  Jacob,  sacredly  setting  so 
much  of  all  his  gains  apart  to  be  given  away.  Others  pre- 
fer to  reach  the  same  end  in  a  less  formal  way.  The  way, 
however,  is  of  small  concern  ;  the  end  is  the  important 
thing ;  and  if,  after  any  fashion,  our  people  could  be  in- 
duced to  incorporate  Giving  among  the  items  of  their  annual 
expenditure,  and  then  to  systematize  their  Giving,  so  as  to 
insure  its  due  proportion  of  income  for  it,  and  its  wise  dis- 
tribution among  the  several  objects  which  ai'e  entitled  to 
remembrance,  it  can  easily  be  seen  how  much  would  be 


302  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

gained  for  all  the  interests  of  our  cause,  and  all  the  depart- 
ments of  our  Church-work,  It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that 
there  are  those  among  us  who  do  this.  Make  the  practice 
general,  —  above  all,  make  it  universal,  and  how  much 
would  be  saved  in  the  fret  and  friction  of  begging  that 
would  be  avoided  1  How  abundantly  all  the  streams  of  our 
activities  would  be  fed  1  With  what  smoothness  every 
wheel  and  pinion  of  our  methods  would  run  1  And  how 
our  Church,  able  to  respond  to  every  call,  —  sowing,  build, 
ing,  gathering,  growing,  to  the  glory  of  God,  would  become 
a  power  as  now  it  cannot  be  I 

Let  us  hope  that  the  time  will  come  when  Giving  will  be 
thus  systematized  by  all  our  people.  But  in  the  mean  time, 
our  needs  press.  Demands  upon  us  increase.  Opportuni- 
ties offer.  Pleadings  for  help,  especially  from  innumerable 
points  of  the  great  West  and  North- West,  and  from  the 
Pacific  shore,  come  to  us.  How  are  these  to  be  met  ?  How 
but  by  such  an  awakening  to  the  subject  as  not  even  our 
Centenary  Year  witnessed  ?  Every  minister  and  every  be- 
liever should  feel  called  of  God  and  the  Master  to  think  and 
act  in  this  regard  as  never  before,  that  every  source  of  rev- 
enue we  have  may  be  made  productive  to  the  largest  degree 
possible.  Every  child  should  be  educated  to  remember  Christ 
and  the  Church,  and  to  grow  up  a  generous  contributor  in 
their  behalf.  Our  Murray  Fund  must  be  completed  —  and 
increased,  for,  as  the  Board  of  Trustees  well  said  in  their 
last  Report,  "amidst  the  precarious  and  variable  resources 
with  which  we  carry  on  our  work,  the  only  certain  and  re- 
liable basis  of  operations  is  the  Murray  Fund,  and  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  Convention,  especially  in  church-extension, 
must  always  be  in  proportion  to  its  assured  income  from  " 
this  source.  Our  Missionary  Boxes  must  be  remembered, 
and  every  home  must  do  its  part  towards  making  them  a 
success.  Having  originated  them,  will  it  not  be  a  shame  to 
us  if,  while  other  churches,  appropriating  them  from  us,  roll 
up  an  income  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year 
from  them,  we  so  neglect  as  to  realize  little  or  nothing  from 
them  ?  The  Annual  Collection  required  by  the  rules  of 
our  Convention  must  receive  the  attention  and  yield  the 
returns  from   all  our  parishes  which  alike  the   necessities 


GIVING.  303 

of  the  case  and  allegiance  to  the  Convention  demand.  Is 
it  creditable  to  us  tliat  with  a  roll  of  nine  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  parishes,  only  one  hundred  and  sixly-five  last  year 
gave  this  collection  ?  * 

But  why  enumerate  ?  The  sole  dependence  of  our  Church 
is  on  the  free-will  ofterings  of  its  members.  We  have  no 
despotism  to  ordain  levies,  no  machinery  to  compel  unwilling 
contributions.  Our  strength  is  in  the  loyalty,  faith,  earnest- 
ness and  generosity  of  our  people.  If  these  fail,  our  Church 
fails,  and  as  one  of  the  organized  forces  of  Christendom, 
Ave  shall  die  and  leave  our  errand  unfulfilled.  Are  we  to  do 
so  ?  No !  my  confidence  in  the  Univei'salists  of  America 
bids  me  answer  in  their  behalf,  and.  No  !  is  the  echo  I  hear 
from  thousands  of  believing  souls.  Let  us  have  the  New 
Departure  we  need  in  this  particular,  then,  —  and  that 
straightway,  insuring  the  prompter,  larger,  more  general 
giving  we  so  much  need.  There  is  use  for  large  amounts ; 
and  if  the  Convention  had  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  this 
very  year,  the  whole  could  be  wisely  employed  —  and 
so  employed  as  to  gladden  our  hearts  in  the  results  that 
would  follow.  But  the  thing  of  most  immediate  importance 
is  that  all  our  parishes,  all  our  ministers  and  people  shall 
understand  the  legitimacy  of  these  claims  upon  them,  and 
put  themselves  into  line  by  giving  something.  A  recognition 
of  our  Church  methods  and  calls,  attesting  thoughtfulness 

*  I  have  referred  above  only  to  the  sources  on  which  our  Church 
is  immediately  dependent  for  the  means  of  doing  its  yearly  work. 
But  I  should  seriously  fail  in  duty  did  I  not  also  call  attention  to  our 
Ministerial  Relief  Funds  as  objects  of  generous  remembrance,  that 
should  every  year  grow,  to  make  provision  for  those  who,  having 
unselfishly  worn  themselves  out  in  the  service  of  tlie  Cimrch,  have  no 
other  human  reliance  to  save  them,  or  their  families,  from  an  old  age  of 
destitution.  Never  was  money  more  worthily  given  than  when  Corne- 
lius Harsen  gave  his  thousands  to  found  tlie  liar  sen  Fund  in  New 
York;  and  Joun  G.  Gunn  did  but  imitate  an  honorable  example  when 
he  devised  his  Eight  Thousand  Dollars  to  the  General  Convention,  for 
"  the  relief,  support  and  maintenance  of  needy  clergymen,  their  widows 
and  families,  in  the  hope  that  others  may  be  led  to  contribute  to  the 
same  object."  Let  these  Funds  be  remembered  in  the  wills  of  dying 
Universalists ;  and  let  similar  Funds  be  founded  by  all  our  State  Con- 
ventions, to  plead  as  they  must  for  the  remembrance  which  their  design 
will  so  well  deserve. 


304  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

and  sympathy  with  respect  to  them  —  this  is  the  thing  that 
presses  now.  Amounts  are  secondary  to  this.  This  secured, 
amounts  will  grow,  and  each  year  will  render  more  generous 
returns.     This,  therefore,  we  must  have. 

So  only  can  we  show  ourselves  as  a  Church  thoroughly 
appreciative  of  the  demands  that  crowd  upon  us,  or  duly 
put  ourselves  into  accord  with  that  pervading  Law  on  which 
the  harmony  and  very  life  of  the  universe  depend.  This  is 
the  Law  of  Benefaction.  Everywhere  we  find  it,  and 
obedience  to  it.  God  is  the  great  Giver,  and  out  of  llis 
infinite  fulness  the  streams  of  His  beneficence  inexhaustibly 
flow.  What  would  become  of  us  if  it  were  not  so  ?  And 
in  its  place,  what  does  not,  like  Him,  somehow  impart  ? 
Nothing  exists  for  itself  alone.  Every  grain  of  sand  is 
linked  in  unconscious  brotherhood  with  every  other,  helping 
to  hold  it  in  place.  The  drops  of  the  ocean,  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  the  leaves  of  the  foi'est,  everything  that  breathes  or  is, 
all  own  the  necessity  by  which  they  act  and  re-act  on  each 
other.  The  ordinance  of  Giving  thus  stretches  from  mote 
to  mote,  from  world  to  world,  from  constellation  to  constella- 
tion, weaving  its  wondrous  net-work  of  kindly  forces  and 
binding  all  things  in  indissoluble  unity  to  each  other  and  to 
the  throne  of  God.  Nothing  is  too  minute,  nothing  too 
vast  to  contribute  its  portion  to  the  general  good. 

Behold,  then,  the  anomaly  that  Selfishness  is,  and  how  every- 
where God  is  rebuking  and  admonishing  against  it.  It  is 
shamed  and  outlawed  by  every  atom  and  every  world,  by  every 
manly  impulse  and  every  womanly  sympathy,  and  crowning 
all  the  rest,  by  the  great  Love  that  never  gVows  weary  in 
bestowing,  and  by  that  life  of  unapproached  sacrifice  in 
which  Christ  gave  himself  for  our  sake.  Where  shall  the 
selfish  man,  or  the  selfish  parish  find  companionship  or 
approval '(  Everything  else  owns  God's  ordinance,  and 
gives  as  it  can.  But,  living  only  as  a  pensioner' on  others' 
aid,  —  receiving,  constantly,  from  innumerable  sources,  and 
fed,  sheltered,  blessed  in  a  thousand  ways,  this  man,  this 
parish,  while  everything  else  is  giving  as  well  as  receiving, 
slinks  into  the  contracting  shell  of  a  mean  selfhood,  with 
hands  out  only  to  clutch  whatever  further  comes  in  the  way. 


GIVING.  305 

growling,  Each  for  himself;  I  do  no  more.  Look  at  the 
man,  look  at  the  parish,  standing  so  rebuked  amidst  the 
kindly  fellowships  of  Nature,  and  in  presence  of  God's 
bounty  and  Christ's  cross,  and  let  each  take  care  that  the 
rebuking  angel  does  not  point  to  us,  saying,  This  is  the 
parish,  or  thou  art  the  man ! 
20 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

DOING. 

It  was  said  in  the  chapter  on  Our  Ministry,  that  if,  as  a 
Church,  we  have  any  right  to  be,  it  is  certain  there  is  some- 
thing for  us  to  do.  And  when  we  consider  the  circum- 
stances amidst  which  we  find  ourselves,  how  much  there  is 
for  us  to  do  !  Error,  unbelief,  indifference,  poverty,  sin, 
how  numerous  are  the  calls  they  make  upon  us,  and  how 
various  the  paths  of  activity  they  open,  and  the  forms  of  ef- 
fort to  which  they  invite  !  Our  own  culture  in  right  char- 
acter is  our  first  duty,  individually,  as  our  fidelity  to  Christ 
and  the  Church  is  the  first  thing  for  us  to  think  of,  collective- 
ly, in  this  matter  of  Doing ;  and  what  is  the  ideal  of  charac- 
ter towards  which  we  should  aim,  what  are  some  of  the 
means  we  should  employ,  and  with  what  ardor  of  consecra- 
tion we  should  give  ourselves  to  that  high  personal  Chris- 
tian living,  and  that  depth  and  earnestness  of  church-life, 
which  is  alone  in  keeping  with  the  demands  of  our  Univer- 
salist  faith,  most  of  the  preceding  chapters  have  tried  some- 
how to  show.  But  any  Doing  that  thinks  only  of  ourselves, 
or  our  own  intei'ests,  or  even  of  our  own  moral  and  spiritual 
improvement,  is  not  only  unpardonably  exclusive  and  selfish, 
but  fails  to  fulfil  one  of  the  essential  conditions  on  which 
alone  our  highest  interests  and  best  improvement  are  to  be 
served. 

No  life  is  complete  lived  in  and  for  itself  alone.  We  are 
whole  only  as  parts  of  each  other.  The  old  saints,  dwelling 
in  caves  and  deserts,  macerating  their  bodies,  and  thinking 
solely  of  their  own  victory  over  the  flesh  and  the  devil,  were 
no  saints  at  all  —  only  so  many  pieces  of  utter  religious  self- 
ishness. The  finest  character  is  impossible  in  solitude. 
One  must  live  in  society,  throbbing  with  human  sympathies, 
participating  in  human  concerns,  responding  to  human  needs, 
to  be  largest, — human  in  the  roundest  and  noblest  sense. 

306 


DOING.  307 

Christ  thoug-ht  of  himself,  and  of  his  own  victory  over  temp- 
tation, and  of  his  own  loyalty  to  God,  and  gave  much  time, 
and  struggle,  and  prayer  to  keep  himself,  while  in,  above 
the  world  ;  but  had  this  been  all  that  he  thought  of,  how- 
ever blameless  he  might  have  been  in  his  purity  and  self- 
control,  there  could  have  been  no  Christ.  In  the  very  nature 
of  his  appointment,  the  Christ  is  a  servant,  —  that  is,  a  doer  : 
as  he  himself  said,  "  The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto,  but  to  minister  ;  "  —  "  mj'^  meat  is  to  do  the  will 
of  Him  that  sent  me,  and  to  finish  His  work."  In  no  single 
expression,  perhaps,  is  so  much  summed  up  of  all  that  most 
charms  us  in  his  life,  as  in  the  brief  words.  He  "  went  about 
doing  good  ;  "  and  should  we  strike  out  all  that  his  love  of 
the  sinful,  his  kindness  to  the  poor,  his  innumerable  tender 
ministries  to  human  want  and  sorrow,  —  in  one  word,  his 
Doing,  contributed  to  make  him,  how  much  would  remain 
of  all  that  the  name  of  Christ  now  symbolizes  ?  Even  God 
is  most  glorious  because  of  what  He  is  in  the  immeasurable 
empire  of  being  as  the  One  Ministering  Spirit,  doing  good 
forever ;  and  were  it  possible  for  us  to  conceive  of  Him  as 
dwelling  solitary  in  His  Eternity,  living  solely  in  and  for 
Himself,  most  of  what  now  moves  us  to  love  and  adora- 
tion would  be  gone. 

These  things  being  so,  need  it  be  said  what  is  required 
before  any  man  or  woman  can  be  a  disciple  of  Christ,  or 
(practically)  a  child  of  God,  —  before  any  Church  can  be  a 
Church  of  Christ  and  a  company  of  God's  servants  ?  Doing 
is  not  only  the  active  side  of  Being ;  it  is  the  indispensable 
condition  of  our  best  development,  and  the  only  method  in 
which  we  can  really  glorify  God,  attest  our  love  for  Christ, 
or  pay  the  world  for  the  privilege  of  living  in  it.  Accord- 
ingly, not,  What  wilt  thou  have  me  believe?  nor  even.  How 
wilt  thou  have  me  feel?  but,  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have 
me  to  DO  ?  "  was  the  first  outcry  of  the  awakened  and  peni- 
tent Saul,  as  it  is  the  first  thought  that  comes  to  every 
truly  awakened  soul ;  and  Christ's  word  to  all  who  bear  his 
name,  whether  individuals  or  churches,  is,  "Ye  are  my 
friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command  you,"  and,  "Not 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  P'ather 


308  OUK   KEW    DEPARTURE. 

which  is  in  heaven."  Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten  that  the 
final  test  of  acceptance  or  condemnation,  in  the  parable 
which  sets  forth  the  principle  on  which  our  Lord,  having 
'  come '  to  '  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory/  is  administer- 
ing his  kingdom,  is,  not  faith,  nor  feeling,  nor  any  punctil- 
iousness in  mere  personal  or  church  duties,  but  this  same 
test  of  Doing  :  the  words  being,  to  those  on  the  right  hand, 
"  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these 
my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me  ;  "  and  to  those  on 
the  left,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  if  not  to  one  of  the  least  of 
these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me."  From  whatever  point  of  view 
regarded,  then,  this  subject  of  Doing  is  one  that  has  weighty 
demands  on  our  attention,  alike  as  individuals  and  as  a 
Church. 

What  we  are  to  do  as  individuals,  in  addition  to  what  is 
required  for  our  personal  growth  in  holy  character,  there  is 
here  no  space  to  say  in  detail.  It  is  all  included  in  the  gen- 
eral statement,  that  lil'e  is  to  be  accepted  as  a  time  to  live 
and  to  labor  for  others  as  well  as  for  ourselves,  and  that  we 
are  actively  to  enlist  in  every  eflbrt  for  tlie  relief,  improve- 
ment, and  welfare  of  our  follow-men,  to  the  fall  extent  of 
our  ability  and  opportunity.  Wo  are  to  enclose  ourselves 
within  no  selfish  '  metes  and  bounds  ;  '  are  to  be  no  drones 
in  the  great  hive  of  the  world's  interests  and  activities  ;  nei- 
ther shirks  nor  cowards  in  the  unceasing  battle  of  life.  We 
are,  each  one  of  us,  in  the  world  to  do  what  we  can  to  make 
it  better  and  happier.  Service  is  alike  the  law  of  humanity 
and  the  law  of  Christ ;  and  it  is  for  each  man  and  woman  to 
ask,  as  in  the  presence  of  that  eye  from  which  nothing  is 
concealed,  What  am  /  doing  as  a  unit  in  the  great  sum  of 
our  race,  and  especially  as  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  Christ, 
to  promote  truth,  to  relieve  distress,  to  instruct  ignorance, 
to  win  back  the  wayward,  to  pull  down  wrong,  to  build  up 
right  ?  —  and  to  feel  condemned  if  the  answer  must  be,  Noth- 
ing ;  only  meanly  living  for  m^'self.  We  are  grossly  recre- 
ant to  every  obligation,  if  we  do  not,  as  we  may,  seek  to 
render  some  service  that  shall  count  towards  one  or  all  of 
these  ends  outside  ourselves.  Here,  as  everywhere,  even 
'the  widow's  mite  '  finds  acceptance,  and  does  its  part.  "  I 
see  in  this  world,"  said  Bishop  Newton,  "two  heaps  —  one 


DOING.  309 

of  human  happiness  and  one  of  misery  :  now,  if  I  can  take 
but  the  smallest  bit  from  the  second  heap,  and  add  to  the 
first,  I  carry  a  point.  I  should  be  glad  to  do  great  things  ; 
but  I  will  not  neglect  little  ones." 

And  this  same  spirit  is  to  possess  and  impel  us  as  a 
Church.  Herein  is  the  New  Departure  to  which  in  this  par- 
ticular we  are  called.  We  have  not  been  altogether  idle. 
For  a  hundred  years,  we  have  been  doing  —  not  always 
what  we  might  have  done,  but  often  bravely,  manfully,  — 
sometimes,  heroically.  Not  without  much  cost  of  labor  and 
sacrifice  have  we  as  a  Church  come  to  be  what  we  are. 
But,  like  all  new  religious  movements  —  the  usual  neces- 
sity being  in  our  case  intensified  because  of  our  peculiar 
position  and  circumstances,  our  effort  hitherto  has  mainly 
been  a  '  struggle  for  life.'  Socially  and  theologically,  every- 
thing has  been  against  us.  Not  an  inch  of  ground  has 
been  gained  that  has  not  been  fought  for.  We  have  had 
our  parishes  to  found,  our  church-edifices  to  erect,  our 
ministry  to  support ;  and  these  things  being  done,  we  have 
thought  we  had  little  time  or  means  for  anything  else. 
Then,  latterly,  as  we  have  grown  stronger,  the  expansive 
instinct  has  asserted  itself,  and  we  have  built  schools  and 
colleges,  and  set  on  foot  a  work  of  Church-extension  —  the 
logical  moral  sequence  of  our  growth  thus  far,  and  a  neces- 
sity, if  we  had  any  earnestness  or  honesty  of  conviction, 
that  we  might  grow  still  further.  Even  in  respect  to  these 
things,  however,  we  have  never  yet  been  half  enough  in 
earnest,  for  the  reason  that  we  never  yet,  as  a  Church,  have 
caught  the  full  inspiration  of  our  faith  as  an  impulse  to  en- 
deavor, nor  begun  to  realize  what  a  stress  of  indebtedness 
comes  from  the  possession  of  such  a  Gospel,  requiring  us  to 
be  up  and  doing  to  give  it  to  others.  Greatly  more  in  eai-- 
nest  there  is  need  for  us  to  be,  therefore,  in  our  Doing  even 
within  the  line  of  these  special  Church  interests  and  obliga- 
tions. 

But  this  is  barely  the  beginning  of  our  Doing,  if  we  are 
to  prove  ourselves  a  Church  of  Christ.  To  think  only,  as  a 
Church,  of  the  extension  of  our  particular  doctrines,  and  the 
enlargement  and  strengthening  of  our  special  sect,  is  as  un- 
pardonably  mean  and  selfish  as  it  is  for   us,  personally,  to 


310  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

think  only  of  our  own  improvement,  or  our  own  gains.  We 
exist  to  touch  the  world's  error  and  evil  at  all  possible  sides, 
and  to  make  ourselves  felt  in  behalf  of  every  interest  of  hu- 
manity, as  positive  workers  for  the  advancement  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Our  obligations  admit  of  no  private,  or  local, 
or  sectarian  interpretation.  We  are  in  the  world,  a  repre- 
sentative of  Christ,  to  war  and  to  help  in  behalf  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  in  all  directions  and  in  every  field,  as  he 
would  were  he  personally  here.  His  life  gives  us  the  key 
to  our  duty,  as  his  spirit  supplies  our  constant  inspiration. 

Giving  the  '  Address  to  the  People,'  at  the  Dedication  of 
the  Church  of  the  Paternity  (Dr.  Chapin's),  in  New  York,  in 
1866,  after  speaking  of  their  personal  and  denominational 
duties,  I  said,  — 

But  you  have,  also,  a  membership  in  the  great  brother- 
hood of  Christendom  and  the  wider  brotherhood  of  Hu- 
manity, and  therefoi'e  have  your  general  Christian  responsi- 
bilities. See  that  you  are  no  less  true  to  these.  You  have 
named  yourselves  the  Church  of  the  Divine  Paternity.  Beau- 
tiful name,  reminding  us  always  of  that  sublime  Father- 
hood of  God  which,  including  all  souls  as  its  children, 
watches  over  their  welfare  and  works  steadily  for  their  re- 
demption. Fail  not  to  catch  the  spirit  thus  indicated,  and 
to  labor,  as  you  have  opportunity,  for  the  ends  it  seeks. 
Show  that  your  religion  is  thoroughly  practical ;  that  your 
love  for  God  incarnates  itself  in  love  and  work  for  man,  and 
that  every  effort  for  the  succor  of  the  distressed,  for  the 
help  of  the  poor,  for  the  conversion  of  the  sinful,  by  whom- 
soever made,  is  here  sure  of  response  and  co-operation. 
Christianity  means  help,  healing,  salvation  for  the  poor  and 
the  perishing ;  and  every  Christian  church  should  be,  as  far 
as  possible,  a  never-failing  fountain  of  help  and  healing. 
See  that  this  Church  becomes  such  a  fountain.  There  is 
nothing  that  grieves  me  more,  as  I  consider  the  position  of 
our  churches  in  this  city  and  elsewhere,  than  the  fact  that 
we  are  so  occupied  with  our  own  endeavors  to  live,  that  we 
fail  of  any  active  and  independent  participation  in  the  vari- 
ous ministries  of  social  help  and  amelioration,  in  which  so 
many  other  churches  are  engaged,  and  for  which  there  are 
such  imperative  calls.     Where  are  our  schools  for  the  poor 


DOING.  311 

and  the  friendless  ?  *  Where  are  our  missions  to  the  degrad- 
ed and  the  destitute  ?  Where  our  '  Homes  '  or  Hospitals  ? 
Where  our  associations  for  generous  outlook  and  kindly  care 
of  any  sort  ?  Except  as  our '  Sewing  Societies  '  may  answer 
some  charitable  purpose,  and  as  we  contribute  to  sustain  the 
philanthropic  activities  of  others,  we  are  in  no  way  mak- 
ing ourselves  felt  among  the  practical  Christian  forces  of  our 
city,  or  of  the  country.  The  explanation,  as  I  have  sug- 
gested, is  found  in  our  circumstances.  But  in  your  case, 
this  explanation  no  longer  holds.  With  your  resources,  and 
your  actual  and  possible  strength,  ought  you  not,  as  a 
church,  to  be  doing  some  of  this  practical  Christian  work  ? 
Our  faith  is  the  soul  of  all  generous  and  philanthropic  effort. 
Take  the  lead  in  the  liberality  and  earnestness  with  which 
all  our  churches  will  by  and  by  address  themselves  to  this 
kind  of  effort,  and  make  for  yourselves  a  name,  by  making 
yourselves  a  power,  among  the  beneficent  agencies  that,  in 
Christ's  name,  are  seeking  to  carry  physical  relief  and  the 
means  of  spiritual  instruction  and  elevation  to  those  who 
are  now  destitute  and  astray,  or  who  are  sitting  in  the 
shadow  of  intellectual  darkness  and  moral  death. 

I  make  no  apology  for  introducing  here  this  extract  from 
an  Address  to  a  particular  church,  for  the  sufficient  reason 
that  I  could  in  no  way  better  express  what  I  believe  is  the 
call  of  God  to  all  our  churches,  or  more  clearly  indicate  the 
New  Departure  with  which  this  chapter  is  chiefly  concerned. 
The  time  has  come  when,  as  a  Church,  we  are  summoned  to 
broader  aims  and  outlooks.  We  should  no  longer  leave 
this  whole  field  of  philanthropic  Christian  toil  to  Christians 
of  other  names,  nor  be  content  with  what  individuals  amono: 
us  are  doing.  We  have  the  faith  which  alone  furnishes 
either  the  legitimate  basis,  or  the  best  inspiration  for  this 
kind  of  labor.  We  have  the  means  too  —  in  men  and 
women  and  money.  It  is  for  us  to  be  true  to  our  faith,  by 
using  these  means  in  doing  accordingly.     The  Church  of  the 

*  Reference  was  made,  in  giving  the  Address,  to  a  small,  struggling 
Mission  at  Sixty-first  Street,  which  had  existed  for  several  years,  and 
which  has  now  grown  to  hundreds,  and  made  itself  very  useful.  Pos- 
sibly a  few  similar  schools  may  liave  since  been  founded  by  our  friends 
in  other  communities.     If  so,  Avhere  ? 


312  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

Divine  Paternity  has  well  led  in  founding  its  Chapin  Some 
for  the  Aged  and  Infirm.  In  due  time,  it  will  doubtless 
follow  with  other  enterprises  in  the  same  broad  field.  The 
example  should  not  be  lost.  Our  whole  Church,  surveying 
the  field  —  alas  I  so  sending  to  us  its  calls  for  succor  and 
deliverance,  should  be  profoundly  agitated  with  the  inquirj'', 
What  can  we  do  ?  and  our  individual  churches  should  turn 
their  attention  to  what  is  thus  demanded,  that,  as  they  have 
the  means,  they  may  use  them,  and  everywhere  give  evidence, 
as  churches,  that  they  have  the  mind  which  was  in  him  who 
came  "  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor  ;  to  heal  the  broken- 
hearted ;  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recover- 
ing of  sight  to  the  blind ;  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised."  There  is  nothing  like  Christian  work  to  vindicate 
the  right  of  an  individual  or  a  church  to  the  Christian  name. 

"  That  little  Mrs.  is  a  noble  woman,"  said  a  zealous 

Presbyterian,  greatly  prejudiced  against  Universalism,  re- 
ferring to  a  Universalist  lady  much  interested  in  philan- 
thropic work.  False,  and  even  mischievous,  as  he  thought 
Universalism  to  be,  he  could  not  deny  its  worthiness  as 
represented  in  such  a  doer ;  and  if,  either  personally  or  as  a 
Church,  we  desire  the  Christian  recognition  to  which  we  are 
entitled,  this  shows  how  we  are  to  command  it.  We  shall 
lack  —  and  shall  deserve  to  lack  —  the  hearty  respect  of 
other  churches,  and  the  fullest  confidence  and  hearing  of  the 
world,  so  long  as  we  fail  duly  to  put  our  faith  into  the 
philanthropic  Doing  by  which  only,  as  a  part  of  our  work, 
can  it  be  fitly  expressed.  Meaning  what  Christ  does,  every 
church  that  assumes  to  bear  his  name  should  try  to  mean 
the  same  —  and  we  above  all  others. 

Nor  is  this  all.  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature,"  was,  in  his  final  parting  with 
them,  Christ's  solemn  charge  to  those  whom  he  had  trained 
to  be  his  messengers.  It  is  no  less  his  charge  to  every 
church  to-day,  and  to  us  as  much  as  to  any  others.  Just 
now,  we  are  occupied  in  the  work  of  consolidation  and 
Church-extension  at  home  ;  but  the  time  is  near  at  hand,  if 
it  bo  not  already  here,  when,  in  a  New  Departure,  we  must 
enlist  also  in  effort  to  extend  a  knowledge  of  our  truth 
abroad.     Even  now,  as  these  lines  are  penned,  an  apostle 


DOING.  313 

from  across  the  water  is  pleading  among  us  for  help  to 
build  a  house  of  worship  for  his  people  in  Scotland.  Should 
his  appeal  be  responded  to,  this,  including  what  has  before 
been  done  for  him,  will  be  our  second  step  towards  foreign 
missionary  work,  as,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  mission  of  Kev, 
A.  C.  Thomas  to  England  and  Scotland,  some  years  ago, 
■was  our  first. 

History  is  prophecy.     In  the  future  as  in  the  past,  Chris- 
tianity can  conquer  new  provinces  from  the  domains  of  idol- 
atry and  spiritual  death  only  as  Christendom  sends  out  its 
missionaries,  the  heralds  of  the  cross  and  the  pioneers  of  its 
civilization.     Every  desert  has  its  spots  of  verdure,  which, 
if  multiplied  and  extended  by  the  sending  out  of  seed  and 
soil,  would  in  time  conquer  the  dearth  and  barrenness,  and 
transform  the  desolation  into  one  broad  stretch  of  fields  and 
gardens.     So  the  world's  evangelization  has  proceeded.     So 
it  must  proceed.     Working  from  every  christianized  point, 
Christendom  must  plant  its  missionary  stations,  to  serve  as 
centres  of  Christian  influence  ;  and  as  these  moral  oases  mul- 
tiply, and  gradually  widen  and  extend,  the  desert  of  heathen- 
dom will  be  possessed,  and,  becoming  transformed  into  a.  field 
of  Christian  culture,  will  bear  fruit  to  the  glory  of  God.     The 
foreign  missionary  work  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  Avork  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  as  its  work  at  home.     There  were  for- 
eign missionaries  as  well  as  home  missionaries  among  the 
Apostles  ;  and  from  that  hour  to  this,  there  never  have  been 
lacking  those  who  have  trod  a  similar  path,  enriching  it  with 
their  example  of  fidelity,  —  often  sanctifying  it  with  their 
blood.     Next  to  Christ  himself,  there  is  nothing  that  Chris- 
tianity could  so  little  afford  to  lose  as  the  record  of  what  its 
self-sacrificing    and    heroic    missionaries    have    done,   make 
what  abatements  we  may  for  mistaken  motives,  and  even 
for  (occasional)  mercenary  aims.     Nor  are  foreign  mission- 
aries any  less  than  home  missionaries  needed  now.     How 
little  of  the  world  is  yet  conquered  to  Christ  !     And,  with 
such   an   interpretation    of  the    Gospel   as   we    could  bear 
abroad  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  nations,  are  we  to  have 
no  part  in  extending  his  conquests  ?     Shame  on  us  if  we 
could  think   of   such   indolence    and   recreancy !      We   are 
called  to  this  field  of  Christian  Doing  no  less  than  others, 


3U  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

—  nay,  as  soon  as  we  are  in  a  condition  to  respond,  are 
called  all  the  more  imperatively  than  others  by  so  much  as 
we  have  a  better  Gospel  to  impart.  How  much  significance 
for  us  there  is  in  the  words  of  the  Japanese  student,  pro- 
testing' against  the  attempt  to  convert  his  people  to  '  ortho- 
doxy '  !  "  The  Christianity  which  will  bless  Japan,"  he 
says,  "is  that  of  love,  not  that  of  hell  fire.  Perhaps  you 
may  use  hell  fire  ;  but  I  am  sure  it  will  not  work  very  well 
in  Japan,  for  hell  fire  has  been  preached  by  Buddhist  priests 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years."  What  a  call  comes  to  us 
from  such  a  statement,  and  from  corresponding  conditions 
elsewhere,  summoning  us  to  enter  this  field  of  missionary 
labor !  How  much  light  and  relief  our  message  would 
carry,  especially  to  those  .at  all  cultivated  in  their  percep- 
tions, and  accustomed,  though  dimly  and  superstitiously,  to 
deal  with  the  religious  problems  of  being  !  And  are  we 
always  to  slight  such  calls  ?  Impossible.  It  is  as  certain 
that  the  time  is  coming  when  TJniversalists  will  send  out 
their  missionaries,  to  bear  the  story  of  a  merciful  Father, 
and  an  omnipotent  cross,  and  a  world's  redemption,  to  souls 
now  sitting  in  darkness  and  famishing  in  their  idolatries  and 
superstitions,  as  it  is  that  Universalism  is  the  living  Gospel 
of  Christ,  or  that  the  Universalist  Church  has  any  business 
in  the  world.     God  hasten  the  time. 

And,  impressed  with  all  that  this  subject  of  Doing,  in 
Christ's  name  and  for  the  widening  sway  of  his  kingdom, 
means  and  includes,  will  we  not  all  give  ourselves  to  the 
New  Departure  it  demands  —  so  that,  laboring  with  fresh 
zeal  for  our  own  spiritual  culture,  for  the  growth  of  our 
parishes,  and  for  the  enlargement  of  our  Church,  wo  may 
also  work  as  never  before  for  the  relief,  enlightenment  and 
welfare  of  souls  about  us,  and  be  ready  to  give  and  to  do 
for  the  extension  of  our  truth,  for  the  succor  of  the  dis- 
tressed, for  the  rescue  of  the  perishing,  for  the  conversion 
of  the  darkened  and  sinful,  wherever  our  message  can  be 
borne  ? 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THREE   WORDS. 

Herewith  ends  this  plea  for  Our  New  Departure.  Its 
original  design  included  several  other  topics.  Especially 
was  it  desired  to  have  a  chapter  each  on  Our  Relations  to 
Other  Churches,  on  Unbelief,  and  on  Some  Serious  Questions 
touching  the  fact  that,  through  social  influences  and  other 
causes^  so  many  of  our  youth  have  been,  and  are  being,  lost 
to  us.  But  the  topics  could  not  be  at  all  properly  treated 
without  swelling  these  pages  beyond  the  limits  assigned 
them.  The  field  we  have  traversed,  however,  is  a  broad 
one  —  perhaps,  for  the  present,  sufficiently  broad.  Who, 
indeed,  that  has  gone  over  it  through  these  successive 
chapters,  looking  back  upon  it,  can  doubt  that  the  New 
Departure  herein  suggested,  could  it  take  place  at  the 
several  points  indicated,  all  along  the  line  of  our  thought, 
our  work  and  our  Church  life,  would  give  us,  not  only  a 
spiritual  awakening  and  impulse,  but  a  commanding  hold 
upon  popular  attention  and  sympathy,  and  a  consequent 
practical  efficiency,  that  would  speedily  make  our  Chui'ch 
the  livest  and  mightiest  agency  for  Christ,  and  for  the  arrest 
and  conversion  of  souls,  at  present  asserting  itself  in  the 
world  ? 

And  now,  reviewing  these  pages,  and  considering  how 
this  labor  can  be  most  fittingly  closed,  three  words  occur  to 
me  as  best  summing  up  what  further  needs  to  be  said : 
Candor  ;  Loyalty  ;  Ignition. 

I.  The  first  of  these  words  —  Candor  —  indicates  the  men- 
tal attitude  and  state  of  feeling  towards  us,  which  we  have  a 
right  henceforth  to  demand  and  expect  on  the  part  of  those 
who  regard  Universalism  as  false,  —  the  New  Departure  to 
which  they  are  called  in  respect  to  us.  We  make  no  com- 
plaint that  our  neighbors  and  friends  disbelieve  and  oppose 

315 


316  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

Universalism,  if,  after  duly  informing  themselves  what  it  is 
and  what  are  its  alleged  proofs,  they  think  they  see  good 
reason  to  do  so.  On  the  contrary,  if  they  have  honestly 
and  intelligently  reached  this  conclusion,  we  aver  it  to  be 
not  only  their  right,  but  their  duty,  to  disbelieve  and  oppose 
it  —  precisely  as  it  is  our  right  and  duty  to  reject  and  op- 
pose '  orthodoxy,'  holding  the  convictions  we  do.  But  it 
is  no  person's  duty  or  right  to  misrepresent  Universalism  ; 
to  oppose  it,  ignorant  of  what  it  is,  and  obstinately  persist- 
ing that  he  will  not  be  informed  ;  or  to  vilify  and  scandalize 
its  believers,  denying  them  the  Christian  name.  Whatever 
their  faults,  the  preceding  pages  may  properly  claim,  in 
some  degree,  to  express  alike  the  faith,  the  aspirations  and 
the  purposes  dominant  in  the  Universalist  Church  to-day. 
Are  they  the  faith,  the  aspirations  or  the  purposes  of  infi- 
dels, or  of  a  profane,  bad  people  ? 

Reviewing  our  history,  we  see  many  things  we  could  wish 
otherwise,  though,  all  the  circumstances  being  taken  into 
account,  we  do  not  see  how,  under  any  law  of  intellectual 
or  spiritual  evolution  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  they 
could  Jiave  been  materially  different ;  and,  considering  our 
present  condition,  we  confess  a  lack  of  many  things  which 
it  would  be  well  for  us  to  possess.  What  Church  does  not  ? 
But  we  are  not  infidels.  We  are  not  a  people  devoid  of 
spiritual  insight  or  concern,  blindly  and  godlessly  travelling 
towards  the  realities  of  the  unseen  world,  unconscious  of 
the  solemnit}'^  of  this  life,  or  of  that  which  is  to  come,  and 
trying  to  deceive  others  into  a  like  blindness  and  godless- 
ness.  We  believe  that,  here  or  anywhere,  life  is  God's 
gift,  and  that  He  is  continuously  and  mercifully  over  it  all ; 
but  we  are  profoundly  impressed  with  its  solemn  meaning 
everywhere.  We  feel  how  much  is,  every  moment,  at  stake 
in  it.  We  see  how  solicitously  God  is  seeking  to  make  us 
aware  of  Him  and  of  our  obligations  to  Him,  and  to  induce 
us,  in  a  return  of  His  love,  to  devote  life  to  His  service. 
We  believe  in  our  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  in  the  Saviour 
God  has  sent.  Vfe  believe  there  is  no  possible  way  of  at- 
taining harmony  with  God,  or  with  the  laws  of  our  own 
being,  anywhere,  except  through  the  help  of  this  Saviour, 
in  the  awakening,  penitence  and  spiritual  birth  of  which  the 


THREE  WORDS.  317 

New  Testament  is  so  full.  Wo  believe  it  to  be  guilt  no  lesn 
than  folly  to  live  for  time  and  earth,  as  if  they  were  all,  and 
tiio  soul  nothing.  We  believe  in  the  penalties  of  irrcligiuu 
and  sin,  and,  as  none  others  do,  afiirm  that  there  is  no 
escape  from  these  penalties.  And  we  are  Universalists  only 
because,  in  a  study  of  God's  Word  and  of  the  design  of 
Chi-ist's  mission  and  the  spirit  of  his  character,  we  cannot 
be  otherwise,  and  because  we  are  sure  that  the  Gospel  as 
we  interpret  it  has  far  greater  power  than  any  other  concep- 
tion of  Christianity  to  impress,  arouse  and  convert,  and  thus 
to  stir  souls  and  consecrate  them  to  God.  Satisfy  us  that 
Universalism  is  not  taught  in  the  Bible  and  the  life  of 
Christ,  or  that  anything  else  can  do  more  to  make  God  and 
Christ  precious,  and  to  further  the  salvation  of  men,  and  we 
shall  at  once  renounce  it,  accepting  what  is  better. 

And,  all  this  being  true,  —  true  beyond  peradventure  or 
denial, — true  on  the  authority  of  every  fact  or  exposition 
that  has  a  right  to  be  considered  in  the  case,  —  proved  to 
be  true  by  the  unbroken  testimony  of  an  entire  century,  — 
is  it  to  pass  for  nothing,  and  are  we  to  be  perpetually 
tabooed  under  the  odium  of  an  unfounded  prejudice,  as  if, 
instead  of  being  such  a  people,  we  were  a  band  of  religious 
freebooters,  having  nothing  in  common  with  Christian  soci- 
ety, only  hanging  on  its  skirts  to  ravage  and  destroy  it  ? 
We  protest  against  so  great  a  wrong.  We  demand  a  new 
departure  in  this  regard,  and  that  every  individual,  every 
pulpit,  every  church,  shall  henceforth  be  held  to  be  a  wilful 
slanderer  before  God  and  man,  that,  overlooking  what  we 
are,  dares  to  ti'eat  us  as  being  what  we  are  not.  It  is  too 
late  to  plead  ignorance  of  our  position  and  character.  We 
insist  on  being  henceforth  judged  by  them. 

How  constantly  we  have  been  otherwise  judged,  no  one 
acquainted  with  the  facts  need  be  told.  The  Evangeli- 
cal Alliance,  lately  in  session,  assumed  to  represent  the 
whole  Protestant  Christian  world,  and  so  impertinently 
pushed  US' outside  the  Christian  household  —  as  one  of  the 
papers  submitted  to  it,  and,  much  to  the  shame  of  the  body, 
received  without  rebuke,  wickedly  classed  us  among  "  tlie 
factors  of  American  Infidelity."  And  this  illustrates  the 
common   '  evangelical '   policy   towards  us.      Occasionally, 


318  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

some  catholic  mind,  while  thinking  us  in  error,  has  recog- 
nized us  as  none  the  less  Christian,  and  searching  to  know- 
exactly  in  what  our  error  consists,  has  been  disposed  to 
meet  us  with  honest  reference  to  the  principles  really  in- 
volved. But  such  instances  have  been  so  rare  as  to  render 
the  rule  the  more  conspicuous,  and  —  unfortunately  for  any 
general  imitation  of  the  example  —  have  almost  invariably 
resulted  in  the  conversion  of  such  antagonists  into  believers, 
as  the  persecuting  Saul,  meeting  the  Lord,  became  the  con- 
secrated Paul.  The  rule  has  been  contemptuous  neglect,  or 
systematic  misrepresentation.  Large  numbers  have  super- 
ciliously affected  to  regard  Universalism  as  a  vagary  so  wild, 
with  adherents  so  vulgar  or  vicious,  as  to  be  beneath  notice  ; 
while  those  who  have  given  it  attention  have  done  so  only 
to  misstate  or  caricature  the  doctrine,  to  travesty  its  argu- 
ments, to  slander  and  abuse  its  believers.  Any  one  of  the 
numerous  tracts,  sermons  or  books  against  it  will  sufficiently 
attest  this. 

Our  friends  '  of  the  contrary  part '  seem,  indeed,  to  have 
found  it  impossible  to  entertain  the  first  conception  of  what 
candor  with  respect  to  us  requires.  Their  usual  answer  to 
the  question,  "Have  you  ever  read  a  Universalist  book?  is, 
"  No,  and  I  do  not  wish  to."  Or,  if,  perchance,  our  books 
are  appealed  to,  and  apparent  authorities  are  cited,  it  is, 
commonly,  to  show  that  they  have  been  shamefully  garbled 
—  as  some  of  these  pages  are  almost  certain  to  be,  or  that 
they  have  been  read  only  to  cull  from  them  the  most  objec- 
tionable possible  statements,  and  to  parade  exceptional 
theories,  or  incidental  speculations,  as  if  they  were  the  very 
substance  of  Universalism  itself.  Robert  Hall,  the  great 
English  preacher,  who  scarcely  had  a  second  as  a  representa- 
tive Baptist,  like  our  own  Walter  Balfour,  against  the 
general  sentiment  of  his  denomination,  denied  the  natural 
immortality  of  the  soul.  In  like  manner,  in  the  entii'e  free- 
dom of  opinion,  on  the  one  basis  of  the  Bible,  which  has 
prevailed  among  us,  and  which,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  alwaj^s 
will  prevail,  some  even  of  our  representative  men  have  held 
opinions  not  generally  accepted  among  us,  while  othox's  in 
no  sense  representative  have  put  forth  their  personal  notions, 
or  idiosyncrasies  —  some  of  them  of  the  crudest  sort.     But 


TIIEEE   WORDS.  819 

those  opinions,  or  notions,  have  never  been  Universausm. 
Every  one  of  them  might  be  exploded  —  as  most  of  them 
have  been  —  and  Universalism  would  not  be  touched.  A 
fortress  is  not  carried  because  some  of  the  sorties  from  it 
liave  been  defeated,  or  some  of  the  works  appended  to  it  — 
though  built  by  the  higliest  officers  in  command  —  have 
been  stormed.  As  little  importance  have  these  personal  or 
incidental  opinions  among  Universalists,  representative  or 
otherwise,  as  related  to  our  central  position.  And  yet, 
these  are  the  things  —  for  the  most  part,  the  only  things  — 
which,  whenever  any  seeming  is  made  of  quoting  us,  are 
put  forth  as  showing  v.'hut  Universalism  is  !  —  things  Avhich 
are  no  more  Universalism  than  bubbles,  or  straws,  on  the 
surface  of  a  stream  are  the  stream  itself. 

Should  I  represent  the  Baptists  as  committed  to  the  non- 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  quote  Robert  Hall  as  proof,  I 
should  be  justly  denounced  not  merely  as  uncandid,  but  as 
dishonest.  The  fact  that  a  certain  idea  is  held  by  one  man, 
or  by  any  number  of  men,  no  matter  how  eminent,  in  a 
denomination,  it  would  be  said,  is  no  warrant  for  charging 
that  idea  upon  the  whole  denomination,  or  for  holding  the 
general  doctrinal  system  of  the  body  responsible  for  it.  On 
what  fundamental  basis  does  the  denomination  stand  ? 
What  are  its  cardinal  principles,  — the  ideas  to  which,  as  a 
denomination,  it  is  committed  ?  These  are  the  questions,  it 
would  be  agreed,  which,  controverting  any  denomination's 
position,  candor  is  obliged  to  ask,  and  the  answers  to  which 
must  be  the  ground  of  objection  and  argument,  if  fair  and 
Christian  opposition  is  to  be  made. 

And  this,  as  our  Church  enters  on  the  second  century  of 
its  history,  is  the  new  departure  which  Universalism  has  a 
right  to  demand  of  its  non-believers.  Let  those  who  think 
they  must,  reject  or  oppose  it.  But  let  them  understand 
why,  and  deal  with  the  real  issue  it  tenders.  There  are 
theories  and  opinions  which,  limited  for  time  as  most  of  us 
are,  we  are  justified  in  putting  summarily  aside.  But  Uni- 
versalism is  not  one  of  these.  True  or  false,  it  touches  all 
that  is  most  momentous  in  the  interests  of  souls  and  of  the 
universe.  Not  only  everything  most  vital  in  theology,  but 
everything  most  fundamental  in  morals  is    involved  in  it. 


320  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

God's  glory,  Christ's  honor,  man's  duty  and  destiny,  all 
hinge  upon  it.  If  it  is  true,  it  is  the  grandest,  most  inclu- 
sive, most  inspiring  of  all  truths,  shedding  its  light  into  the 
darkest  recesses  of  human  experience,  and  sounding  its 
messages  of  hope  through  the  deepest  and  awfulest  caverns 
of  depravity  and  spiritual  death.  If  it  is  false,  all  things 
are  shadowed  in  gloom  ;  not  even  the  most  loving  Christian 
is  assured  of  a  desirable  destiny,  and  there  is  occasion  for 
us  all  to  wring  our  hands  in  a  perpetual  agony  of  suspense 
and  pain.  This  being  so,  no  one  with  a  head  or  a  heart  can 
afford  to  be  indifferent  to  it,  or  can  be  justified  in  ignoring 
it,  or  in  dealing  with  it  in  any  other  than  the  most  earnest, 
most  reverent,  most  candid  spirit.  The  best  thought,  the 
most  intelligent  appreciation,  the  most  prayerful  study  can 
give  it  no  more  than  it  deserves. 

Nor  does  the  nature  of  the  subject  alone  commend  it  to 
respect  and  investigation.  The  proportions  which  as  a 
Christian  conviction  it  has  again  attained  urge  the  same  de- 
mand. I  say  again  attained,  because,  before  the  corruptions 
of  Christianity  began,  Universalism,  as  we  believe,  was  the  ac- 
cepted Christian  faith,  so  that  whoever  denied  or  questioned 
it  parted  company  so  far  not  only  with  Christ  and  the  Apos- 
tles, but  with  the  whole  Church.  Not  here  to  make  a  point 
of  this,  however,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  Universalism  is  no 
longer  the  insignificant  whimscy  which,  some  years  ago,  it 
might  have  been  held  to  be.  Then  its  friends  were  few,  its 
resources  limited,  its  organization  —  if  it  could  be  called  or- 
ganization—  chaotic,  and  all  its  means  of  influence  small. 
But  that  time  has  passed.  In  spite  of  opposition,  contume- 
ly and  studied  misrepresentation  on  the  part  of  its  enemies, 
and  —  what  have  been  far  worse  for  it  —  of  numerous  specu- 
lative errors  and  practical  mistakes  and  short-comings  on 
the  part  of  its  friends,  it  has  now  grown  to  a  prevalence 
which  entitles  it  to  command  consideration,  and  which  no 
one  aiming  at  any  intelligent  idea  of  the  spiritual  facts 
and  tendencies  of  the  time  can  afford  to  overlook.  Not  to 
speak  of  schools  and  colleges,  or  of  the  numbers,  wealth, 
social  position,  learning,  or  moral  worth,  which  the  Univer- 
SALiST  Church  organically  represents,  Universalism  has  come, 
confessedly,  to  be  a  power  among  the  elements  of  modern 


THREE   WORDS.  321 

Christian  thought  and  life.  Rev,  Dr.  Patton,  of  Chicago, 
not  long  ago,  in  a  labored  paper  against  it,  was  obliged  to 
concede  that  Universalism  is  "  a  subject  so  close  to  human 
feelings"  that  "there  need  be  no  apology  for  discussing" 
it ;  that  "  it  attracts  increased  attention  daily  in  the  theo- 
logical world  ;  "  that  "we  can  hardly  conceive  that  a  good 
man  should  be  without  sympathy  with  such  longings  and 
hopes  "as  it  ministers  to  ;  that  the  doctrine  was  "  enter- 
tained by  John  Frederic  Oberlin  and  John  Foster,  after 
an  examination  of  the  subject  in  the  light  of  reason  and  the 
Word  of  God;"  that  "not  a  few  Christians  lean  decid- 
edly towards  "  it,  "  while  the  contrary  view  is  accepted 
by  yet  others  only  with  painful  doubt  and  a  sense  of  con- 
flict ;  "  and  that  "  learned  orthodox  commentators  such  as 
Neander,  Tholuck,  Olshausen,  and  Lange  "  are  among  those 
who  favor  it.* 

And  this  being  the  testimony  which  its  bitterest  opponents 
are  compelled  to  give  concerning  it,  the  time  has  evidently 
gone  by  for  anybody  to  treat  Universalism  as  if  it  were  an 
obscure  and  contemptible  heresy,  with  no  friends  to  give  it 
respectability,  with  no  prestige  to  entitle  it  to  attention. 
It  is  all  about  us,  with  everything  best  on  its  side  ;  and  while 
Dr.  Patton  is  forced  to  admit  that  *  orthodoxy  '  is  "  accepted 
with  painful  doubt  and  a  sense  of  conflict,"  and  Dr.  Edward 
Beecher  testifies  that  it  involves  difBculties  which  are  "felt 
by  sanctified,  humble  and  reasonable  minds  in  proportion  as 
they  become  holy,  humble  and  reasonable,"  Universalism  is 
penetrating  all  churches,  and,  as  a  deep,  underlying  conviction, 
or  hope,  is  making  friends  and  converts  among  their  adher- 
ents and  even  their  ministers,  for  the  reason  that,  as  Olshau- 
sen has  said,  "  the  feeling  is  deeply  rooted  in  all  noble  minds, 
and  is  the  expression  of  a  desire  for  the  perfected  harmony 
of  the  universe,"  and  because  it  is  in  so  many  ways  proving, 
as  distinguished  authority  once  said  it  was  destined  to  prove, 
"an  exquisite  adaptation  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  this  dis- 
tracted age." 

If,  then,  our  brethren  of  the  traditional  creeds  will  insist 
that  Universalism  is  false,  they  should  make  due  account  of 

*  These  extracts  are  quoted  from  a  review  of  Dr.  Patton,  in  the  Uni- 
versalist  Quarterly,  Vol.  viii.  p.  182,  by  Rev.  G.  T.  Flanders,  D.  D. 
21 


322  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

the  new  conditions  under  which  the  warfare  against  it  is  to 
be  waged,  and  modify  their  methods  accordingly.  Neither 
neglect,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  abuse  and  defamation,  on  the 
other,  will  further  answer.  A  system  for  the  satisfactions 
of  which  our  whole  nature,  when  at  all  awakened,  is  hun- 
gering, and  on  whose  behalf  so  much  is  to  be  said  by  way  of 
argument  and  proof,  — which  alone  harmonizes  reason,  con- 
science and  the  analogies  of  nature  with  the  Word  of  God, 
and  whose  principles  are  the  only  principles  that  any  Chris- 
tian can  put  into  life,  —  which  touches  questions  so  vital 
and  tremendous,  and  whose  roots  so  stretch  down  into  the 
heart  of  things,  taking  hold  of  all  that  concerns  human  wel- 
fare, and  twining  underneath  the  very  throne  of  God,  — 
which  can  alone  solve  the  problems  that  most  perplex  us, 
irradiate  the  universe  with  the  presence  of  an  Infinite  Love, 
or  give  peace  to  believing  souls,  —  a  system  which,  num- 
bering the  noblest  and  most  learned  of  the  fathers,  with 
Origen  at  their  head,  among  its  early  advocates,  can  point 
also  to  such  men  as  Archbishop  Tillotson,  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
Soame  Jenyns,  William  Law,  Bishop  Newton,  Dr.  Priestley, 
Oberlin,  Neander,  John  Foster,  and  Maurice  among  its  later 
friends,  —  which  inspires  all  our  best  poetry,  and  sums  up 
the  result  which  every  fresh  revelation  of  science  suggests, 
and  every  deduction  of  philosophy  prophesies,  —  which  is 
'  orthodoxy '  in  Germany,  and  which  is  honej'combing  the 
Church  of  England,  as  well  as  all  branches  of  the  American 
Church,  —  which,  as  we  have  seen,  contains  within  itself 
such  a  fulness  of  truth  and  law,  and  motive  and  appeal,  for 
the  grandest  spiritual  results,  —  which  to-day  exhibits'  on 
the  roll  of  its  living  defenders,  or  believers,  so  large  a  pro- 
portion of  the  world's  best  names,  in  all  fields  of  study  and 
intellectual  achievement,  and  which,  confessedly,  has  so 
much  in  the  number,  standing,  culture  and  character  of  its 
organized  adherents  to  deserve  and  compel  respect  —  such 
a  system,  we  submit,  is  no  longer  to  be  brushed  aside  as  of 
no  account,  or  misrepresented  with  impunity,  or  flippantly 
declared  to  be  absurd  or  unscriptural  ;  and  as  little  is  it  to 
be  disposed  of  by  denouncing  its  believers  as  vulgar  and 
ignorant  nobodies,  infidel  in  opinion,  devoid  of  religious  con- 
science or  purpose,  and  abandoned  in  life.     It  has  won  its 


THREE  WORDS.  323 

place  as  one  of  the  leading  factors  in  the  sum  of  the  world's 
religious  life,  and  it  must  be  respected  and  dealt  with  ac- 
cordingly. 

Addressing  oui'selves,  then,  to  those  who  reject  Univer- 
salism,  and  especially  to  those  who  count  it  their  duty  to  op- 
pose it,  we  demand  —  by  every  law  of  what  is  gentlemanly, 
courteous,  Christian,  —  nay,  by  every  law  of  simple  decency, 
have  we  not  a  right  to  demand  ?  —  that  they  honorably  ac- 
cept the  facts,  and  understanding  what  Universalism  is  and 
who  we  are,  henceforth  in  the  new  departure  suggested, 
treat  it  and  us  with  the  Candor  and  Truthfulness  to  which 
we  are  entitled,  —  ceasing  their  aspersions  on  our  charac- 
ters ;  according  us  the  Christian  recognition  which  belongs 
to  us  ;  fairly  stating  our  position  ;  honestly  dealing  with 
our  fundamental  principles,  and  making  their  attacks,  '  man- 
fashion,'  on  our  citadel,  instead  of  keeping  up  a  boyish  fusil- 
»lade  against  anybody's  personal  outworks,  and  trjdng  in  the 
smoke  and  noise  to  make-believe  that  there  is  nothing  else. 

We  ask  nothing  on  the  score  of  favor.  In  no  way  are 
we  dependent  on  the  countenance  of  these  friends  who  so 
insist  on  treating  us  as  heathen  and  outlaws.  We  court 
none  of  their  patronage,  and  should  resent  any  attempt  to 
patronize  us  should  they  make  it.  Alike  their  smiles  and 
their  fellowship,  on  the  one  side,  and  their  opposition  or 
contempt,  on  the  other,  are  no  more  to  us  than  ours  are  to 
them.  We  feel  ourselves  in  every  particular  their  peers, 
with  a  Christian  standing  as  legitimate  and  unqualified,  with 
every  Christian  prerogative  as  much  beyond  question  —  en- 
titled to  expect  from  them  all  that  they  can  properly  expect 
from  us,  or  from  each  other.  Are  they  Christians  ?  so  are 
we.  Are  they  believers  in  God  and  lovers  of  man  ?  so  are 
we.  Are  they  laboi'crs  for  the  world's  redemption  ?  so  are 
we.  Are  they  ministers  of  the  cross  ?  We  are  more,  be- 
cause ministers  of  a  cross  omnipotent,  preaching  a  Saviour 
who  can  know  neither  failure  nor  defeat  —  in  faith  more 
abundant ;  in  expectations  larger  and  more  exultant ;  in  as- 
surance of  victoiy  more  complete.  In  no  sense  more  than 
they  are  we  '  strangers  and  foreigners  '  in  the  Christian 
camp.  By  birth,  inheritance,  conviction,  as  much  as  they, 
we  are  "  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  house- 


324  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

hold  of  God,  and  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Apos- 
tles and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief 
corner-stone."  We  claim,  therefore,  only  our  equal  rights. 
We  ask  for  simple  justice,  as  Christians  among  Christians. 

Nor  is  it,  mainly,  for  any  reason  personal  to  ourselves 
that  we  make  this  demand.  We  make  it  in  behalf  of  the 
Christian  cause.  Men  are  nothing.  Christ  is  everything. 
And  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  now  in  his  Church  so  divided, 
dishonored,  weakened,  by  these  petty  tests,  by  these  parti- 
san alienations,  by  these  unauthorized  lines  of  division  and 
exclusion,  we  protest  against  these  things,  and  for  ourselves 
and  others  demand  that  his  law  of  fellowship  be  the  only 
one  known  among  his  professed  friends.  He  builds  his 
Church  on  the  rock  of  his  Messiahship  as  the  Son  of  God ;  and 
whoever  stands  on  this  is  a  member  of  his  body,  entitled  to 
the  sympathy  and  fellowship  of  every  other  member  as  a 
brother  in  the  Lord.  Sects  and  parties  as  such  may  estab- 
lish whatever  terms  of  fellowship  they  choose,  and,  building 
whatever  walls  they  wish,  may  admit  or  exclude  whomsoever 
they  will.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  broad  question  of  mem- 
bership in  the  Church  of  Christ,  every  one  of  these  walls 
must  fall,  and  every  one  of  these  private  tests  give  way. 
To  be  entitled  to  recognition  as  a  Methodist,  a  Presbyterian, 
an  Episcopalian  or  a  Universalist,  is  one  thing  ;  to  be  en- 
titled to  recognition  as  a  Christian  is  quite  another  ;  and 
whoever,  in  the  narrowness  of  his  sectarian  spirit,  assumes 
to  set  up  his  particular  walls  as  the  walls  of  Christ's  Church, 
and  to  say  that  only  those  who  use  his  private  passwords 
and  accept  his  creed,  are  to  be  acknowledged  as  Christians, 
invades  the  liberty  of  every  Christian  soul,  and  insolently 
dares  to  put  himself  in  place  of  Christ. 

Already,  we  are  glad  to  see,  able  and  catholic  men,  per- 
ceiving the  soundness  of  this  principle,  are  pushing  the 
question  whether  it  is  expedient  or  Christian  longer  to  deny 
us  what,  on  such  a  basis,  is  so  indisputably  our  due.  Such  a 
re-action  and  debate  are  only  what  we  have  always  been  sure 
would  at  some  time  come.  The  sentiment  of  justice  may  for 
a  while  slumber,  but  it  never  fails  at  length  to  assert  itself. 
Our  demand  is  that  the  agitation  go  on  until  our  rightful 
place  is  confessed  ;  and  if,  so  undeniably  equitable  as  our 


THREE  WORDS.  325 

claim  is,  those  who  call  themselves  '  the  church  evangelical ' 
will  not  take  this  new  departure,  and  give  us  what  they  no 
longer  have  even  the  semblance  of  an  excuse  for  denj'ing, 
the  motive  will  not  fail  to  be  understood,  and  on  them  will 
fall  the  consequences.  They  will  be  crushed  under  the 
wheels  of  an  advancing  Christian  sentiment,  while  '  the 
world  '  will  accord  to  us  what  a  besotted  and  recreant 
Church  withholds.  With  confidence,  we  '  bide  our  time  ' 
and  wait  the  issue. 

II.  Loyalty.  Reference  was  made  iu  our  second  chapter 
to  those  who,  believing  Universalism,  are  identifying  them- 
selves with  other  churches,  or,  worse  still,  drifting  outside 
all  churches,  without  religious  association  anywhere.  It  is 
one  of  our  great  misfortunes  that  there  are  so  many  such. 
Rev.  W.  E.  Manley,  in  a  recent  communication  to  one  of 
our  papers,  describing  an  interview  with  the  late  General 
Winfield  Scott,  reports  him  as  saying,  "  I  do  not  see  how 
any  man  can  read  the  Bible,  and  not  be  a  Universalist.  I 
am  an  Episcopalian  because  I  was  born  and  brought  up  in 
that  church  ;  but  I  don't  believe  their  dogmas."  Who  with 
any  considerable  acquaintance,  does  not  know  scores,  — 
possibly  hundreds,  whose  position  is  thus  substantially  de- 
scribed ?  Visiting  one  of  the  finest  and  most  extensive  es- 
tablishments in  the  city  of  my  residence,  shortly  after  taking 
my  present  chai'ge,  I  congratulated  the  proprietor  on  his  suc- 
cess, and  received  this  reply  :  "  AH  I  have  here  achieved  has 
been  built  up  on  the  principles  of  Universalism  —  God  the 
universal  Father,  and  all  men  brethren."  And  yet  this  man, 
an  avowed  Universalist,  and  thus  recognizing  his  obligation 
to  put  his  fixith  into  his  business,  though  he  knows  how 
much  Universalism  in  Philadelphia  is  needing  him  and  all 
like  him,  is  a  member  of  a  Methodist  church,  the  teacher 
of  a  Bible  class  in  a  Methodist  Sunday-school,  and  one  of 
the  active  and  generous  leaders  of  a  Methodist  congrega- 
tion, putting  his  cliildren  into  associations  in  wliich  they  are 
being  trained  away  from  what  he  advocates  as  truth  ;  help- 
ing to  keep  iu  countenance  the  assumptions  which  exclude 
his  fellow-believers  from  Christian  recognition  ;  and  con- 
tributing all  he  has  and  is  to  the  support  and  furtherance 


326  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

of  what  he  4Dronouuces  a  gross  perversion  of  the  Gospel ! 
The  most  busy  and  talkative  Universalist  whom  I  have  met 
in  Philadelphia  never  comes  near  our  churches,  but  identifies 
himself  with  the  Episcopalians,  throwing  whatever  social  in- 
fluence he  has  into  their  scale,  and  against  what  he  is  so 
busily  fond  of  talking  about  as  the  truth  !  And  in  a  conver- 
sation with  me  once,  he  named  several  of  the  most  prominent 
Episcopal  churches  of  our  city,  saying  that  one  half  of  the 
congregation  of  one,  a  third  of  another,  and  a  quarter  part 
of  still  another  were,  to  his  certain  knowledge,  undisguised 
Universalists,  and  that  all  the  churches  were  full  of  them  ! 

And  these  men,  and  all  these  people,  as  every  intelligent 
person  knows,  are  but  representatives  of  multitudes  all  over 
the  land.  Even  '  evangelical '  pulpits  are  not  without  such. 
A  Methodist  minister  came  to  me  not  long  ago,  avowing 
himself  a  Universalist,  and  desiring  a  comparison  of  views. 
I  urged  him  to  be  an  honest  man  and  put  himself  before  the 
world  as  his  conclusions  required  ;  but  subsequently,  return- 
ing some  books  I  had  loaned  him,  he  sent  me  a  note,  in 
which,  though  reiterating  his  faith  in  Universalism,  he  said, 
"  I  am  bound  by  virtue  of  some  pecuniary  aid  I  received 
while  preparing  for  the  ministry,  to  be  a  Methodist  Episco- 
pal minister,  and  I  am  not  able  to  make  good  the  money, 
which  I  must  do,  with  interest,  if  I  leave  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,"  So  he  remains  in  the  Methodist  minis- 
try ;  but  he  could  not  close  his  note  without  revealing  a 
consciousness  of  his  false  position  by  "hoping"  that  I 
would  "  be  charitable  "  towards  him,  and  that  he  had  "  not 
fallen  in  my  estimation  because  of  the  course  that  he  was 
in  honor  (  !  )  bound  to  take "  !  Nor,  I  have  reason  to  be 
well  assured,  is  he  the  only  Universalist  in  the  Metliodist 
ministry.  There  are  many  like  him.  Other  churches  are  in 
a  similar  condition.  A  young  man  recently  left  our  ministry 
for  the  Episcopalians,  distinctly  certifying  the  Bishop,  as  I 
am  informed,  that  in  no  particular  had  his  opinions  changed, 
but  that  he  was  pleased  with  their  forms,  and  thought  he 
could  be  happy  in  their  work.  He  is  at  present  an  Episco- 
pal pastor  in  Philadelphia.     But  why  multiply  examples  ? 

The  time  was  when  to  identify  one's  self  with  a  given  de- 
nomination, in  the  pulpit  or  the  pews,  indicated  an  accept- 


THREE  WORDS.  327 

aiice  of  the  creed  of  that  denomination.  But  such  identifi- 
cation is  no  longer  evidence  to  this  elllcct.  Said  the  Meth- 
odist minister  above  referred  to,  in  his  note  to  me,  "  As 
the  great  object  of  preaching  is  the  improvement  of  man- 
kind, I  hope  that  I  may  do  good  in  whatever  church  I 
labor"  —  as  if  'the  improvement  of  mankind'  did  not 
require  the  preaching  of  the  truth,  and  as  if  what  one  be- 
lieves, or  whether  the  church  in  which  he  labors  stands  for 
what  he  believes,  were  a  question  not  worth  the  asking  I 
And  in  much  the  same  spirit,  the  idea  has  come  strangely 
to  prevail  that  if  one  'tries  to  do  about  right,'  it  matters 
nothing  what  '  meeting '  he  attends,  or  in  what  pulpit  he 
preaches,  or  whether  he  sincerely  holds  or  preaches  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Church  with  which  he  is  connected  or  not ! 
In  fact,  public  sentiment  has  become  shamefully  debauched 
in  regard  to  this  subject.  Anything  like  absolute  respon- 
sibility to  what  is  believed  to  be  religious  truth  is,  to  a  fear- 
ful extent,  ignored  ;  and  Pilate's  question,  if  not  in  so  many 
words,  and  in  his  sneering  contempt  for  a  thing  so  impal- 
pable, is,  virtually,  and  in  much  of  his  utter  unconcern,  the 
question  of  a  host  of  people  to-day,  "  What's  truth  "  com- 
pared with  fashion,  or  popularity,  or  convenience,  or  fancy, 
or  any  whim  or  indifference  that  may  chance  to  take  us  ? 

"  An  Orthodox  Minister,"  in  a  recent  magazine  article 
of  no  small  significance,  arraigns  the  whole  '  orthodox 
Protestant '  church  as  full  of  defection  from  the  creeds, 
and  says,  "  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  are  thousands 
in  the  Protestant  churches  to-day,  who,  if  required  publicly 
to  renew  the  same  confession  of  faith  which  they  made 
when  they  first  entered  the  church,  could  not  do  it  consci- 
entiously. But  the  church  accepts  their  external  adherence, 
though  cognizant  of  their  heart-defection,  and  thus  becomes 
a  particeps  criminis  to  a  system  of  deceit  which  effectually 
undermines  all  integrity  of  character,  sacrificing  that  for 
which  alone  the  church  was  established,  for  the  sake  of  an 
appearance  of  doctrinal  soundness  ;  preserving  the  shell, 
but  destroying  the  kernel  ;  debauching  the  conscience  for 
the  sake  of  preserving  the  creed  intact,"  *     Does  anybody 

*  Scribner's,  for  July,  1873,  p.  298. 


328  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

doubt  that  the  most  of  this  apostasy  is  in  the  direction  of 
Universalism,  more  or  less  pronounced  ?  There  is  probably 
not  a  single  Protestant  sect  without  Universalists  in  its 
ministry  ;  and  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  a  congregation  of 
any  Protestant  name,  particularly  in  those  portions  of  the 
country  where  the  leaven  of  our  principles  has  been  at  all 
diffused,  that  has  not  more  or  less  Universalists  in  it,  while, 
like  the  Episcopal  churches  in  Philadelphia  which  have  been 
alluded  to,  many  would  show  large  numbers  of  them.  And 
when  to  these  we  add  the  other  class,  —  probably  as  many 
more,  who,  while  theoretically  with  us,  are  religiously  home- 
less, helping  to  swell  the  vast  throng  of  '  the  unchurched,' 
we  have  a  condition  of  things  which  may  well  arrest  atten- 
tion, astounding  every  honest  mind,  and  which,  as  we  reflect 
upon  it,  shows  the  occasion  we  have  to  protest  and  appeal 
for  its  correction.  Every  day,  the  inquiry  more  seriously 
presses.  How  shall  these  disloyal  multitudes  be  reached  and 
awakened  to  see  how  weak,  how  dishonorable,  how  wrong 
their  false  position  is  ? 

So  far,  then,  as  I  can  secure  their  hearing,  I  address 
myself  to  these  multitudes  in  the  name  of  the  truth  they 
are  defrauding,  and  of  the  Church  to  which  their  sympathy 
and  service  should  be  given,  calling  them  to  a  new  departure. 

I  plead  with  them  to  look  at  what  they  are  doing,  in  the 
light  of  its  consequences.  Not  to  speak  of  the  suspicion 
and  dishonor  that  would  be  brought  upon  the  faith  thus 
treachei'ously  held  by  the  failure  of  so  many  to  perceive  any 
moral  or  religious  meaning  in  it,  or  to  catch  from  it  any 
hint  of  obligation  to  it,  were  it  not  that  Christ  himself  had 
just  such  disciples,  and  that  no  form  of  Christian  doctrine  can 
plead  exemption  from  such  believers,  I  ask  them,  first,  to  con- 
sider how  much  is  lost  to  the  truth,  and  to  all  the  interests 
which  the  truth  concerns,  in  the  faithlessness  of  so  many 
thousands,  whose  numbers,  wealth,  intelligence  and  social 
standing  would  so  re-enforce  our  Church,  and  at  once  increase 
its  power  !  Give  to  Universalism  all  that  thus,  in  common 
honesty,  belongs  to  it,  and  straightway,  not  twofold  simply, 
but  tenfold  at  least  would  its  weight  as  an  organized  religious 
force  be  augmented.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  I  appeal  to 
those  in  other  churches  who  should  be  with  us,  to  consider  what 


THREE  WORDS.  329 

a  fictitious  show  of  strength  is  imparted  to  error,  and  how  its 
hold  upon  the  popular  faith  and  sympathy  is  made  to  seem  so 
much  more  than  it  actually  is,  - —  and  what  a  preponderance  of 
ecclesiastical  and  religious  influence,  which  in  no  way  belongs 
to  it,  is  thus  given  it,  — and  what  a  most  improper  advantage 
is  accorded  to  it  as  such  multitudes  of  children  are  placed 
in  its  hands  for  education,  by  parents  who  have  themselves 
repudiated  it,  —  and  how  the  progress  of  truth  is  hindered 
and  postponed  by  those  who  should  be  its  friends,  as,  in 
manifold  ways,  they  become  the  allies  and  helpers  of  doc- 
trines which  they  have  not  only  rejected,  but  which  they 
profess  to  abhor,  —  and  how  thus  the  dominion  of  error  is 
prolonged,  and  souls  caused  to  suffer,  and  the  deepest  life 
of  the  world  denied  the  ministries  it  needs  !  And  then, 
turning  to  the  homeless  drifters,  who  should  be  in  our 
churches,  but  who  permit  themselves  to  be  dissipated  among 
the  non-religious,  —  many  of  them  among  the  irreligious, 
elements  of  our  communities,  I  ask  them  to  consider  how 
they  are  helping,  though  professing  sympathy  with  religious 
ideas,  to  multiply  and  strengthen  the  agencies  that  are  at 
work  to  break  up  all  churches  and  to  disintegrate  Christian 
society  itself,  while  their  children  go  their  way,  to  bo  trained 
in  false  conceptions  of  God  and  the  Gospel,  or  to  run  loose 
without  any  religious  training  —  the  '  gamins  '  of  our  re- 
spectable Christendom ! 

Will  anybody  say  that  all  these  are  things  of  no  account, 
—  to  be  made  light  of,  or  to  be  suffered  to  go  on,  with  no 
sense  of  condemnation  because  of  them  on  the  part  of  those 
to  whose  charge  they  are  to  be  laid,  and  with  no  effort 
towards  remedy  by  those  who  witness  them  ?  Are  they  not, 
on  the  contrary,  things  of  grave  and  threatening  import? 
And  should  not  all  who  love  loyalty  and  justice,  of  what- 
ever creed,  cry  out  against  them,  and  do  not  you  who  are 
responsible  for  them  owe  it  to  yourselves,  and  your  children, 
and  truth,  and  the  world,  and  all  that  is  involved,  to  review 
the  whole  subject,  and  to  resolve  on  an  immediate  departure 
in  the  direction  of  honor  and  honesty,  that  will  put  you  in 
your  true  relations  ? 

But  there  is  something  deeper  and  more  serious  than 
mere  consequences  for  these  disloyalists,  whether  in  or  out 


330  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

of  other  churches,  to  think  of  in  regard  to  this  subject,  viz., 
the  principles  which  their  disloyalty  ignores.  Consequences 
are  largely  on  the  surface.  Principles  are  substantive 
and  central.  Consequences  we  may  sometimes  disi'egard. 
Principles  never.  Loyalty  is  simple  fidelity ;  and  the 
obligations  to  fidelity  are  universal.  On  no  possible  plea 
can  any  man  or  woman  for  a  moment  be  justified  in  except- 
ing his  or  her  opinions  from  the  sweep  of  these  obligations, 
or  in  thinking  fidelity  less  a  binding  or  solemn  duty  with 
reference  to  opinion  than  with  reference  to  country,  or 
family,  or  plighted  faith  of  any  sort.  What  is  owed  to 
Opinion  is  as  actual  a  debt  as  what  is  owed  to  the  butcher  or 
the  baker.  All  moral  obligations  have  finally  the  same  roots  ; 
and  no  man  is  a  true  man  who  is  false  to  any  of  them. 
Honesty,  if  real,  is  absolute,  pertaining  to  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  a  man's  life  —  as  fineness  and  strength  pertain 
not  to  spots  of  a  piece  of  cloth,  but  to  the  whole  web,  if  it 
is  fine  and  strong.  Show  me  a  man  dishonest  in  one  thing-, 
even  the  least,  and  I  will  show  you  a  man  who?  on  sufficient 
occasion,  will  be  dishonest  in  anything.  An  honest  man  is 
not  a  man  honest  in  some  relations,  or  in  reference  to  some 
trusts,  but  a  man  honest  through  and  through,  —  in  all  rela- 
tions, in  reference  to  all  trusts  ;  honest  towards  God  as  well 
as  towards  man  ;  honest  in  things  innermost  as  well  as  things 
outermost.  A  vase  is  marred,  wherever  or  however  cracked. 
So  is  integrity.  It  is  integrity  only  so  long  as  it  is  complete. 
"  Whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in 
one  point,  is  guilty  of  all." 

Will  any  one  dispute  these  statements  as  statements  of 
principle  ?  If  not,  it  is  easy  to  see  what  follows.  The 
obligations  to  Opinion  are  of  precisely  the  same  nature  as 
tliose  imposed  by  any  other  trust,  and  disloyalty  to  them, 
therefore,  is  in  essence  the  same  as  treason  to  one's 
country,  or  as  bad  faith,  treachery,  disloyalty  in  business, 
in  politics,  in  friendship,  in  anything  else.  It  is  falseness. 
It  is  dishonesty.  Is  it  not  worth  while,  then,  for  you  who 
are  thus  disloyal  to  consider  in  whose  company  you  are  ? 
There  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  one  opinion  of  Judas  and 
Arnold.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  you  who  are  helping  to 
swell  the  verdict  against  these  men,  and  who  would  feel 


THREE   WORDS.  331 

insulted  and  indignant  to  be  suspected  of  disloyalty  to  patri- 
otism, to  friends,  to  any  domestic  or  social  obligation,  and 
who  are  yet  every  day,  in  your  treachery  to  what  you  hold 
as  truth,  practising  a  faithlessness  quite  as  culpable  in  God's 
sight,  to  try  to  see  j'^ourselves,  in  such  a  comparison,  as  God 
and  all  brave  and  noble  minds  see  you  ? 

Opinions  are  unseen  and  impalpable,  it  is  true.  But  a 
trust  is  a  trust,  be  it  what  it  may.  Should  some  person 
place  in  the  hands  of  any  one  of  3^ou  people,  so  faithlessly 
holding  Universalism,  a  hundred  dollars  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor,  or  for  any  other  specific  purpose,  and  he  should  put  it 
unused  into  his  pocket,  or  in  any  way  prove  recreant  to  the 
stewardship,  how  many  of  you  all  would  think  it  a  matter 
of  MO  importance,  or  hesitate  to  say.  He  is  a  dishonest  man  ? 
But  is  reci'eancy  to  truth  —  or  what  is  believed  to  be  truth 
■ — less  a  dishonesty,  because  truth  cannot  be  weighed  or 
counted  ?  Is  falsity  of  position  as  to  one's  convictions  less 
a  falsity,  because  convictions  cannot  be  handled  or  seen  ?  Is 
good  faith,  i^  loyalty,  conditioned  on  the  material  substance 
or  avoirdupois  of  things,  and  not  on  their  essence  ?  So  evi- 
dently judged  my  ministerial  Methodist  acquaintance,  since 
he  felt  "  in  honor  bound  "  to  think  a  great  deal  of  the  money 
men  had  loaned  him,  and  nothing  of  the  truth  God  had  given 
him  !  And  on  this  point  he  but  illustrates  the  judgment  of 
the  entire  class  he  represents. 

How  much  such  need  to  think  what  opinions  are  1  "The 
things  which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  are  eternal."  Ideas,  opinions  rule  the  world. 
Impalpable,  unseen  though  they  are,  they  underlie  all  things, 
and  are  the  seed  of  God's  grandest  harvests.  As  such, 
there  is  no  other  trust  so  sacred.  How  else  could  one  be 
justified  in  holding  them  at  the  price  of  martyrdom  ?  Final- 
ly, indeed,  there  is  nothing  in  this  world  but  ideas  ;  and  in 
the  last  analysis,  there  is  neither  permanence  nor  power  in 
anything  but  religious  ideas.  Religion  being  the  life  of 
souls,  if  the  world  is  ever  to  be  regenerated,  it  is  to  be  by 
means  of  religious  truth, — if  Christianity  be  from  God,  by 
means  of  Christian  truth.  IIow  solemn,  then,  the  interests 
with  which  one  trifles,  —  how  grave  the  disloyalty  of  which 
he  is  guilty,  who,  having  decided  convictions  touching  any 


332  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

question  of  Christian  doctrine,  conceals,  deserts,  or,  on  any 
plea,  proves  faithless  to  them  1  What  disloyalty  so  crimi- 
nal ?  or  which  one  of  you  all,  practising  it,  can  tell  how 
many  lives  you  are  helping  to  poison,  or  how  wide  or  disas- 
trous the  consequences  of  your  faithlessness  are  to  be  ? 
"If  any  man  come  to  me,"  said  Christ,  •'and  hate  not  his 
father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and 
sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple." 
What  was  this  but  saying,  in  effect,  that  loyalty  to  opinion 
must  be  held  the  supreme  duty  ?  and  what  would  he  who 
spoke  these  words  say  to  you  who,  professing  faith  in  him, 
are  for  any  reason  proving  false  to  your  faith,  could  he  speak 
to  you  to-day  ?  Better,  if  the  choice  must  be  made,  deser- 
tion of  friends,  and  disloyalty  to  country,  and  a  disregard  of 
all  human  relations,  than  treachery  to  this  supreme  trust  of 
truth. 

Applying  to  every  opinion  sincerely  held,  all  this  has  spe- 
cial force  in  respect  to  Universalism.  All  trusts  are  sacred, 
but  some  place  us  under  special  obligation  ;  and  when  we 
consider  what  Universalism  is,  —  the  deplorable  results,  the- 
oretical and  practical,  of  the  theology  it  aims  to  supplant, 
—  the  influences  which  are  conspiring  against  it,  and  all  that 
helps  to  make  up  the  case,  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  it  is 
such  a  trust. 

Looking  at  what  it  would  displace,  we  see  this.  For  those 
professing  to  believe  the  traditional  theology  of  the  Church, 
I  have  only  words  of  kindness  and  —  so  far  as  they  give 
evidence  of  sincerity  —  respect.  Nor  can  we  doubt  that, 
with  its  many  errors,  this  theology  has  elements  of  truth 
which  have  done  much  good  service.  But  speaking  of  its 
radical  and  characteristic  principles,  if  God  is  good,  and 
Universalism  be  true,  what  is  there  falser  or  more  perni- 
cious ?  Let  its  own  deponents  answer.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher 
and  authorities  no  less  eminent  long  ago  confessed  that 
nearly  all  the  infidelity  of  Christendom  is  to  be  attributed 
to  it.  Catharine  Beecher  and  hosts  of  like  impartial  wit- 
nesses have  told  us  how  God  has  been  made  abhorrent,  and 
religion  distasteful,  by  it.  Albert  Barnes  and  similar  suf- 
ferers, giving  voice  to  their  travail  and  agony,  tell  us  that 
it  makes  the  universe  "all  dark,  dark,  dark"  to  them,  and 


THREE   WORDS.     ,  333 

that  thoy  find  no  relief  from  the  anguish  and  torture  which 
it  occasions.  And  besides  these,  the  sad  records  of  insanity 
and  suicide  present  themselves  in  terrible  testimony  against 
it ;  while  the  prevalent  neglect  of  religion,  and  the  formal 
pietism  of  which  there  is  so  much  in  the  Church,  and  the 
material  and  mercenary  conceptions  of  a  good  life,  and  of 
the  motives  thereto,  so  current,  no  less  attest  its  perverting 
and  corrupting  work.  Except  sin,  I  know  of  nothing  that 
so  blasts  and  crushes,  that  so  corrodes  and  agonizes,  that 
so  makes  life  a  suspense  and  a  torment,  and  death  a  horror, 
when  its  real  principles  are  taken  home,  and  come  to  fruit. 

Is  all  this  nothing?  or  can  one,  in  view  of  facts  like 
these,  —  facts  undeniable,  —  be  held  as  guilty  of  no  wrong 
in  counting  them  nothing,  and,  while  himself  disbelieving 
the  errors  thus  arraigned,  in  allowing  his  children  to  be  ed- 
ucated in  them,  or  in  making  himself  in  any  way  a  party  to 
the  continuance  of  their  corrupting  and  tragic  sway  ?  Who 
will  dare  so  aflSrm  ?  Let  those  who  believe  this  theology  be 
faithful  to  it;  and  let  us  thank  God  for  the  earnest  and 
saintly  souls  who,  professing  it,  are  able  to  draw  life  from 
the  Saviour,  and  nutriment  and  inspiration  from  the  Gospel, 
in  spite  of  it.  But  being  what  it  is,  —  with  such  a  history 
as  to  what  it  has  done,  and  such  a  record  as  to  what,  so  far 
as  it  still  retains  any  hold  on  heads  or  hearts,  it  is  doing,  — 
there  is  no  duty  more  solemn  or  imperative  for  those  eman- 
cipated from  it  than  to  wash  their  hands  of  all  complicity 
with  it.  By  all  means,  let  us  cultivate  the  most  kindly  and 
catholic  relations  with  its  believers.  Though  so  mistaken, 
they  are  none  the  less  our  brethren  and  sisters  in  Christ, 
and  many  of  them  are  setting  us  examples  of  a  consecrated 
and  fervent  piety  which  we  may  well  imitate.  As  our 
brothers  and  sisters  in  Christ,  let  us  be  ready  to  co-operate 
with  them  in  every  Christian  endeavor ;  but  to  all  induce- 
ments or  pleas  towards  any  sympathetic  identification  with 
them  in  the  direct  or  indirect  support  of  their  creeds,  the 
one  answer  should  be,  "  0,  ray  soul,  come  not  thou  into 
their  secret ;  unto  their  assembly,  mine  honor,  be  not  thou 
united."  All  words  are  poor  to  express  what  seems  to  me 
not  simply  the  inconsistency,  but  the  sin  of  those  who  say 
or  do  otherwise.     For  what  are  they  doing  ?     It  would  be 


334  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

bad  enough  if  they  were  encouraging  merely  innoxious  errors. 
But  they  are  doing  far  worse.  They  are  helping  to  main- 
tain and  diffuse  errors  that  have,  for  centuries,  been  sapping 
the  faith  of  Christendom,  and  infusing  false  and  venal  mo- 
tives into  every  popular  conception  of  religion.  They  are 
helping  to  give  prevalence  and  permanence  to  what,  as  they 
believe,  misrepresents  the  character  of  God,  dims  the  glory 
of  Christ,  impairs  the  efficacy  of  the  Gospel,  detracts  from 
the  power  of  the  Cross,  and  that  has  torn  more  hearts,  and 
withered  more  hopes,  and  corrupted  more  lives,  and  mantled 
more  souls  in  the  gloom  of  despair  than  —  with  the  single 
exception  named  —  any  other  cause.  They  are  thus  helping 
to  conserve  what  they  should  count  it  their  solemn  duty  to 
God  and  man  to  correct  and  destroy. 

Does  some  one  say,  The  minister  I  support  is  '  liberal,' 
and  does  not  at  all  offensively  preach  his  creed  ?  Then  the 
more  shame  for  the  minister,  and  for  every  Universalist 
found  among  his  supporters.  Herein  is  one  of  the  unfavor- 
able conditions  under  which  we  have  to  labor.  '  Orthodoxy  ' 
has,  to  a  wide  extent,  ceased  to  be  frank  and  honest.  Great- 
ly modified  it  has  been,  and,  as  was  said  in  our  first  chapter, 
the  creeds  as  formerly  held  are,  every  year,  being  put  more 
and  more  out  of  the  thought  and  faith  of  the  people.  Thank 
God  for  the  tendencies  which  are  thus  gradually  making  an 
end  of  them,  and  for  the  drift  in  which  any  minister  is,  in 
any  actual  sense,  becoming  more  '  liberal '  and  Christian  in 
the  substance  of  his  faith.  But  so  far  as  the  old  faith  at  all 
lingers,  let  us  have  it  from  every  pulpit  just  as  it  is  held. 
The  ground  of  complaint  now  is  that  even  these  modified 
creeds  are  sugar-coated  by  too  many  who  pretend  to  preach 
them.  Public  taste,  if  not  public  sentiment,  has  got  beyond 
tliem,  and  so  the  sulphur  is  made  to  burn  without  the  old 
blue  or  the  ancient  odor.  What  a  thinning  out  of  '  evan- 
gelical '  churches,  and  what  a  corresponding  filling  up  of 
ours,  we  should  see,  were  it  not  so  !  The  Episcopal  church 
in  Philadelphia,  said  by  the  talkative  Universalist  to  whom  I 
have  referred  to  have  a  congregation  one  half  Universalists, 
recently  changed  pastors.  The  new-comer  was  moved  to 
be  honest,  and  in  a  very  explicit  way  preached  the  doctrines 
of  the  church,  whereupon  —  so  I  was  assured  —  he  was  no- 


THREE   WORDS.  335 

tificd  that  he  must  cease  such  preaching,  or  that  he  or  a 
large  part  of  the  congregation  woukl  leave.  lie  has  not 
left,  and  I  have  not  heard  that  the  congregation  has  seri- 
ously diminished  —  from  which  the  inference  is  clear.  What 
shall  be  said  either  of  suth  a  minister,  or  such  a  congrega- 
tion ?  or  what  shall  be  said  of  those  openly  or  secretly 
believing  Universalism  who  become  parties  to  such  insin- 
cerity ? 

Away  with  all  concealment,  or  "daubing  with  untem- 
pered  mortar  "  !  The  doctrine  of  endless  woe  is  either  true 
or  false.  If  true,  it  is  not  a  thing  to  be  withheld,  disguised, 
or  toyed  with.  It  should  be  preached,  distinctly,  unmistak- 
ably, constantly,  in  pulpits,  at  funerals,  at  every  possible 
opportunity  to  alarm  souls  ;  and  he  who,  pretending  to 
think  it  true,  fails  so  to  preach  it,  is  a  trifler  and  a  time- 
serving traitor  to  his  hearers  ;  and  were  it  possible  that  it 
could  prove  true,  every  such  dainty  and  treacherous  trifler 
would  go  up  to  the  throne  of  God  at  death  with  the  blood 
of  souls,  lost  through  his  unfaithfulness,  dripping  from  his 
hands,  to  deserve  the  hottest  place  in  the  hell  to  which  they 
would  be  doomed.  When  shall  we  have  the  real  character 
of  such  men  understood  ?  How  nobly  contrasts  with  them 
the  conscientious  and  plain-spoken  minister  who  said,  "I 
was  dismissed  because  I  could  not  preach  Universalist  ser- 
mons at  funerals  "  ! 

And  the  spirit  of  all  this  applies  equally  to  those  who, 
having  adopted  Universalist  conclusions,  are  willing,  under 
any  pretext,  to  occupy  '  evangelical '  pulpits,  ostensibly 
committed  to  '  evangelical '  doctrines.  How  can  such  men 
stand  up  before  God  and  their  congregations  in  prayer,  or 
use  the  name  of  the  pure  Christ,  without  being  crushed 
under  a  sense  of  their  duplicity,  or  feeling  that  their  pulpit 
floors  are  likely,  at  any  moment,  to  open  beneath  them  ? 
Think  of  Paul,  after  having  been  met  by  the  Master  and 
brought  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  as  concealing  his  con- 
version, and  continuing  to  labor  as  if  he  were  a  Pharisee  as 
before  !  Think  of  John,  or  Peter,  or  any  of  the  Apostles, 
as  pursuing  such  a  course  1  The  very  thought  is  an  insult 
to  them.  And  yet  these  men  of  to-day,  professing  to  stand 
in  place  of  Paul  and  Peter  and  the  rest,  are  practising  a 


336  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

hypocrisy  and  a  double-dealing'  which  would  have  made  the 
Apostles  a  hissing  and  a  bj'^-word.  Is  what  would  have 
been  so  base  in  Apostles  manly  and  creditable  in  their  suc- 
cessors ? 

But,  special  as  are  the  claims  of  Universalism  on  the  loy- 
alty of  all  who  accept  it,  considering  the  errors  it  would 
supplant,  and  the  wrong  of  concealing  these  errors  when 
they  are  held  as  truth,  or  of  supporting  or  seeming  to  hold 
them  when  they  have  been  renounced,  these  claims  are,  if 
possible,  immeasurably  intensified  when  we  consider  what  it 
is  in  itself.  I  have  already  sufficiently  said  what  it  is,  if  it 
be  the  truth.  There  is  nothing  else  so  grand  or  precious. 
It  is  light.  It  is  consolation.  It  is  encouragement.  It  is 
spiritual  power.  It  is  fulness  of  peace.  And  the  day  of 
millennial  glory  will  never  come  till  its  principles  are  per- 
ceived and  its  spirit  diffused,  rendering  it  the  life  of  all 
souls.  We  talk  of  the  importance  of  our  republic.  And  it 
is  important.  I  know  of  no  simply  human  trust  so  moment- 
ous. But  what  is  any  mere  form  of  government  compared 
with  this  Gospel  of  God's  universal  love  and  omnipotent 
grace  ?  Blot  out  these  institutions  of  ours  from  among  the 
nations,  and  what  has  been  done  in  comparison  with  what 
would  follow  were  this  central  sun  of  truth  blotted  from  the 
religious  heavens  ?  Dear,  and  justly  dear,  as  our  republic 
is  to  every  American  or  Christian  heart,  dearer  far,  unutter- 
abl}^  dearer,  should  this  Gospel  be  to  us  ;  and,  shameful  as 
would  be  the  treachery  of  any  man  against  a  government 
freighted  with  so  much  of  inestimable  worth  to  the  civiliza- 
tion and  progress  of  the  world,  still  more  shameful  is,  I  be- 
lieve, in  the  sight  of  God,  and  should  be  in  the  sight  of  all 
honest  men,  the  disloyalty  of  those  who,  believing  this  Gos- 
pel, are,  directly  or  indirectly,  allowing  themselves  to  be 
numbered  against  it  —  more  shameful  because  this,  in  its 
principles,  underlies  not  only  all  right  government,  all  be- 
neficent institutions,  and  all  noble  being  or  doing,  but  all 
faith  in  God,  and  all  hope  for  man. 

Have  we  not  a  right,  then,  to  appeal  to  you,  the  thou- 
sands now  in  so  false  a  position  in  i-espect  to  what  you  be- 
lieve as  truth,  and  am  I  doing  more  than  my  duty  in  holding 
up  this  word.  Loyalty,  before  you,  and,  in  the  name  of  all 


THREE   WORDS.  337 

that  is  manly  and  just,  pleading  with  you  to  make  the  new 
departure  on  which,  if  you  would  be  really  honest  men  and 
women,  deserving  the  world's  respect  or  God's  approval, 
yon  should  at  once  enter  ?  I  know  the  excuses  offered  and 
the  causes  at  work  in  connection  Avith  tliis  svd)ject.  I  know 
the  strength  of  social  ties.  I  know  the  power  of  'respecta- 
bility' and  fashion.  I  know  the  force  of  all  those  currents 
of  influence  which  are  sweeping  away  from  us  towards  more 
'  popular '  churches,,  and  away  from  all  churches  into  indif- 
ference, or  religious  homelessness  and  vagabondism.  But 
I  know  also  that,  as  not  one  of  these  considerations  weighs 
so  much  as  an  atom  of  dust  in  God's  scales  towards  justify- 
ing the  disloyalty  in  behalf  of  which  they  are  pleaded,  so 
neither  will  they  have  the  force  of  a  burnt  straw  to  hold 
any  true  man  or  woman  away  from  the  Church  to  which 
his  or  her  sympathy  and  support  should  be  given. 

This,  it  is  time  that  it  should  be  understood,  is  not  a 
question  of  personal  preference,  or  convenience,  or  taste,  or 
position,  or  social  or  business  interest.  Like  all  questions 
of  duty,  it  is  simply  a  question  between  God  and  the  soul : 
a  question  of  honor;  a  question  of  manhood  or  womanhood; 
a  question  of  integrity  and  right.  No  person  is  so  rich  as 
to  be  superior  to  the  obligations  it  involves  ;  none  so  hum- 
ble or  poor  as  to  be  absolved  from  its  demands.  "  Where 
do  you  propose  to  go  to  church  ?  "  asked  wealthy  friends 
of  a  noble  man,  —  one  of  the  members  of  my  Church,  now 
in  weakness  sailing  out  to  the  unseen  sea,  —  on  his  removal 
to  Philadelphia.  "To  the  Universalist  Church,  if  I  can  find 
one/'  Avas  the  reply.  "  0,  but  that  is  not  fashionable  or 
popular  here,''  said  the  friends.  "  No  matter  whether  it  is 
fashionable  or  not,"  came  the  manly  response.  "  It  is  my 
Church,  and  I  shall  go  to  it,  though  its  service  be  in  a 
barn."  In  that  spoke  a  man,  as  every  true  man,  conscious 
of  God  and  wishing  to  maintain  his  own  integrity,  will 
speak  in  answer  to  all  possible  pleas  or  excuses  for  support- 
ing what  he  does  not  believe,  or  for  going  Avhere  he  is  out 
of  place,  or  for  going  nowhere. 

There  is  but  one  course  for  a  man  who  Avould  be  truthful, 
—  and  that  is,  always  to  speak  the  truth,  though  the  heavens 
fall.  And  for  the  same  reason,  there  is  but  one  course  for 
22 


338  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

those  believing  Universalism,  if  they  would   preserve  their 
self-respect,  and  be  able  without  shame  to  think  of  God,  or 
to  look  the  world  in  the  face,  —  and  that  is,  to  be  loyal  to 
their    convictions,    at  whatever  cost.      Is  Universalism  un- 
fashionable or  unpopular  where  you  live?     Give  all  you  are 
or  have  to  it,  and  help  to  make  it  fashionable  and  popular. 
"  Universalism  is  not  respectable,"  sneeringly   said   some- 
body in  a  crowded  horse-car,   in   Philadelphia  —  to   which 
remark  there  was,  all  round,  a  general   nodding   of  assent. 
"  Gentlemen,"  said  the   same   noble  man  just  referred  to, 
rising  from  his  seat  —  a  man  known  of  all  to  be  second  to 
no  other  as  a  high-toned  and   Christian  merchant,  "  Gentle- 
men, am  I  respectable  ?     I  am  a  UniversaUst."     There  was 
no  more  talk  about  the  non-respectability  of  Universalism  in 
that  car.     In   like   manner  should   all   Universalists,  in  the 
pulpit    or    out   of  the   pulpit,  honor    themselves   and    their 
faith.     Is  Universalism  unable  in  your  community  to  boast 
of  wealth  or  numbers  ?     Put  yourselves  and  your  families 
and   whatever    money   or  position    you    command    into  its 
scale.     Are  companions  or  friends  indisposed  to  go  where  it 
is  preached  ?     Let  your  word  be.  Go  where  you  prefer ;  but 
as  for  me,  let  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning  if  I  forget 
the  faith  or  the  Church  to  which  my  service  is  due.     Is  there 
no  Universalist  church   where  you  live  ?     Do  the  most  in 
your  power,  at  the  earliest  moment  possible,  to  have  one, 
putting  yourselves,  meanwhile,  into  living  connection  with 
the  nearest  church  of  your  faith   available   to  you.     Have 
you,  if  you  are  a  minister,  a  good  position  where  you  are, 
and  are  you  doubtful  what  will  come  to   you  if  you  avow 
yourself,  and  change   your  relations  ?     No  matter  ;  be  an 
honest  man,  following  the  behest  of  God  in  the  call  of  His 
truth,  like  Abraham,  who  "  went  out,  not  knoAving  whither 
he  went;"  like  Paul,  who  went  "  bound  in  the  spirit  to 
Jerusalem,"  not  knowing  what  should  befall  him  there,  only 
assured  that  bonds  and  afflictions  awaited  him,  but  saying, 
"  None  of  these   things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life 
dear  unto  myself"     In  one  word,  believing  Universalism,  be 
loyal  to  it,  as  the   patriot  is   loyal  to   his  country  ;   as  the 
lover  is  loyal  to  his  mistress  ;  as   the  saint  is  loyal   to   his 
God.     In  Paul's  words  to  the  Corinthians,  and  as  the  Lord 


THREE  WORDS.  339 

Christ  would  say,  could  he  speak  to  you  out  of  heaven, 
"  Watch  ye,  stand  fast  in  the  faith,  quit  ye  like  men, 
be  strong." 

How  but  by  such  steadfastness  and  fidelity  has  truth  ever 
advanced,  or  humanity  been  carried  forward?  It  seems  a 
small  thing- to  you,  0  man  or  woman  disloyal  to  the  victorious 
Christ  and  the  Gospel  of  universal  redemption,  living  amidst 
all  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the  fidelity  of  faithful 
souls  have  given  you,  to  turn  your  back  upon  the  truth,  to 
conceal  your  convictions,  to  play  false  with  God  and  give 
support  to  what  you  believe  to  be  error  ;  but  how  empty 
would  history  be  of  heroism,  and  how  barren  of  all  tlio 
grandest  results  it  now  records,  had  all  been  like  you ! 
Where,  bethink  you,  I  pray,  where  would  the  world  have 
been  to-day  but  for  the  consciousness  of  Responsibility  to 
Opinion,  which  has  possessed  and  moved  souls,  through  the 
ages,  animating  them  to  noble  doing  and  daring  for  Truth's 
sake  ?  Loyalty  to  ideas,  —  fidelity  to  honest  conviction,  — 
the  purpose  at  all  hazards  to  put  one's  self  unflinchingly 
where  one  morally  and  intellectually  belongs  —  what  but 
this  has  given  us  heroes  and  martyrs,  illuminated  the 
otherwise  dim  annals  of  our  race  with  the  most  chivalric 
self-sacrifice,  destroyed  old  errors,  lifted  fresh  truths  into 
victory,  and  so  kept  the  wheels  of  the  world's  progress  in 
motion  ?  If  all  on  whose  eyes  the  light  of  new  truth  has 
dawned,  and  to  whom  advanced  and  unpopular  convictions 
have  come,  had  been  as  insensible  to  duty  in  this  regard  as 
some  have  always  been,  and  as  you  now  are,  you  would 
to-day  have  been  savage  wanderers  in  some  wilderness, 
bowing  before  some  stock  or  stone  in  worship:),  and  in  place 
of  all  this  splendid  sum  of  results  which  we  call  Christian 
Civilization,  there  would  have  been  no  Christ,  no  Cross,  no 
Conquered  Gi'ave,  no  toiling  Apostles,  no  saintly  confessors, 
sufl'ering  for  your  sake  and  mine, — nothing  of  the  fruitage 
that  is,  or  of  the  more  glorious  fruitage  yet  to  be,  —  only 
the  dearth  and  darkness  of  an  utter  barbarism.  Ideas,  con- 
victions, bravely  held,  confessed  or  proclaimed  in  face  of 
penalty,  obloquy,  death,  —  lived  for, —  died  for,  —  these  it  is 
that  underlie  all  this  fair  structure  which  we  see,  and  that  have 
put  us  where  we  are,  and  made  the  life  of  humanity,  in  ita 


340  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

best  things,  what  it  is  ;  and  whoever,  man  or  woman,  hav- 
ing any  conviction  really  held,  and  especially  a  moral  or  re- 
ligious conviction,  is  not  honest  towards  it,  does  not  an- 
nounce it,  does  not  seek  identity  with  its  friends,  does  not 
stand  by  it  at  whatever  peril,  and  work  for  it,  proves  false 
to  the  law  by  which  alone  the  world's  growth  proceeds,  and 
deals  dishonorably  alike  with  the  God  who  gives  the  truth, 
vs^ith  the  brave  souls  who  have  sought  to  serve  it  in  the 
past,  and  with  all  who  are  concerned  to  possess  it  in  the 
future. 

0  brothers  and  sisters,  whoever,  whatever,  wherever  you 
are,  thus  disloyal  now,  will  you  not,  if  you  have  any  stuff 
of  manhood  or  womanhood  in  you,  awaken  to  a  sense  of 
these  things,  and  with  conscience  alive,  and  self-respect 
asserting  itself,  enter  on  the  new  departure  for  which  I 
plead,  and,  whatever  the  ties  that  now  hold  you,  or  the 
considerations  that  now  influence  you,  for  Christ's  sake, 
for  your  own  sake,  for  your  children's  sake,  for  the  world's 
sake,  resolve  henceforth  to  put  yourselves  where  you  be- 
long ? 

in.  Ignition.  Whatever  Christianity  proposes,  it  pro- 
poses as  a  ministry  of  Divine  quickening.  The  baptism  of 
Christ  is  a  baptism  of  'the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  fire; '  and 
accompanying  the  Pentecostal  outpouring  of  the  spirit, 
'tongues  like  as  of  fire  ^  appeared.  The  symbol  doubtless 
had  incidental  meanings  ;  but  it  significantly  tells  at  what 
Christianity  aims.  "  Light  enough,  hut  no  heat,"  is  the  crisp 
phrase  in  which  Wendell  Phillips  once  explained  the  failure 
of  all  heathen  systems  and  philosophies  to  give  life.  Chris- 
tianity supplies  this  lack.  Its  business  is  to  set  souls  spir- 
itually on  fire,  melting  them  into  contrition,  kindling  them 
to  enthusiasm,  and  filling  them  with  the  glow  of  all  holy 
emotion  and  purpose.  Christ's  own  being,  therefore  —  calm 
and  undemonstrative  as  he  was,  was  all  aglow  with  the  fires 
of  Divine  love  and  truth.  Every  Apostle  flamed  with  faith, 
enthusiasm,  and  devout  assurance  and  consecration.  And 
if,  anywhere,  since,  there  have  been  those,  high  or  humble, 
who,  in  Christ's  name,  have  been  in  any  degree  earnest, 
saintly,  heroic,  it  has  been  solely  because,  whatever  their 


THREE  WORDS.  341 

belief,  or  however  they  may  have  argued,  they  have  also 
felt  Cliristianity,  and  have  been  so  far  kindled  and  set  spir- 
itually to  burning'  by  it.  In  steam-engines,  other  things  be- 
ing equal,  power  is  always  in  the  ratio  of  fuel  eonsumed. 
So,  by  a  like  law,  in  life,  spiritual  power  is  proportionate 
to  the  substance  of  truth  fused  in  the  soul.  And  illustrating 
how  CMiristianity  seeks  to  aflect  us,  these  things  in  the  past 
indicate  what  must  be  in  the  future,  if  its  work  is  at  all 
efiectually  to  proceed.  The  Avorld  is  to  be  redeemed,  not 
by  dogma  or  debate,  —  only  as  thought  is  melted  into  feel- 
ing and  purpose,  and  as  the  tlame  thus  kindled  spreads  from 
soul  to  soul,  from  church  to  church,  quickening  our  w^hole 
huraanit}'^  into  one  universal  glow  of  love,  adoration  and 
child-like  service.     Life  only  can  give  life. 

What  fact  or  thought,  then,  so  fit  as  this  wherewith  to 
end  these  pages  ?  These  several  chapters  are  the  children 
of  my  brain  ;  but  they  are  even  more  the  outpouring  of  my 
heart.  I  believe  Universalism,  my  faith  in  it  being  identical 
with  my  faith  in  God.  I  love  the  Universalist  Church,  be- 
lieving in  its  future  as  confidently  as  I  believe  in  the  future 
of  Christianity  itself.  I  see  in  it  the  leaven  which  is,  ulti- 
mately, to  leaven  all  Christendom  ;  the  stone  that  is  to  smite 
every  image  of  error,  and  to  become  a  great  mountain,  fill- 
ing the  whole  earth.  It  is,  therefore,  I  believe,  the  Provi- 
dential agency  which  is  not  only  to  bring  the  entire  Church 
into  agreement  with  the  truth,  but  which  is  to  attract  and 
organize  in  allegiance  to  Christ  the  vast  multitude  of  souls, 
sickening  of  the  creeds  and  temjDorarily  drifting  from  all  pos- 
itive faith  and  religious  ideas.  But  this  future  of  our  Church, 
I  equally  believe,  is  not  possible  in  the  line  of  much  of  our 
present  thinking  and  methods  ;  is  contingent  upon  an  utter 
renunciation  of  various  errors  now  prevalent  among  us,  — 
upon  a  clearer  perception  of  truths  now  held  only  as  half- 
truths,  and  so  held,  if  not  for  evil,  certainly  for  no  good,  — 
and  upon  a  deeper  and  intenser  religious  experience  and  a 
higher  order  of  spiritual  life.  And  these  last,  I  no  less  be- 
lieve, are  to  be  attained  only  through  a  more  vital  and  in- 
seeing  appreciation  and  a  closer  and  more  pungent  and 
personal  administration  of  the  Gospel  as  an  awakening,  con- 
verting and  consecrating  power. 


342  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

So  believing-,  it  is  the  one  desire  of  my  life  to  see  tlieso 
conditions  fulfilled,  and  our  Church  realizing  its  proffered 
destiny.  This  book  is  the  result.  It  is  a  contribution 
towards  an  attempt  to  help  on  an  end  for  which  we  are  all 
praying.  And  now,  approaching  its  close,  not  without  some 
concern  as  to  Avhcther  it  is  at  all  to  answer  the  purpose  for 
which  only  I  have  written  it,  as  I  look  back  over  the  themes 
I  have  tried  to  discuss,  and  forAvard  to  our  future,  —  as, 
especially,  having  spoken  to  those  in  opposition,  and  to 
those  disloyal,  I  turn,  finally,  to  those  who  are  the  active 
and  contributing  constituency  of  our  Church,  organized  or 
scattered,  and,  reflecting  on  what  we  have  and  are,  and  on 
what  we  must  have  if  we  are  to  live,  query  how  far  they,  — 
rather,  how  far  we,  are  to  prove  duly  considerate  of  what  is 
demanded  of  us,  and  equal  to  it,  no  word  in  the  language 
comes  to  me  as  so  well  summing  up  all  our  needs  in  one,  as 
this  word.  Ignition.  It  is  not  a  word  often  used  in  such  a 
connection,  —  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  saw  it  so  used  ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  —  possibly  it  is  all  the  more  —  fitting 
on  this  account  for  the  service  here  appointed  it. 

The  burden  of  all  these  pages  is  that  the  time  has  come 
for  an  advance  of  our  whole  Church,  not  simply  into 
methods  and  appeals  more  consonant  with  our  predomi- 
nant conclusions,  but  on  to  altogether  higher  ground  spir- 
itually, in  more  pronounced  and  earnest  labor  for  the  con- 
version and  salvation  of  souls,  and  the  systematic  cultiva- 
tion of  the  religious  life.  As  I  have  not  failed  to  intimate 
at  every  suitable  point,  there  are  many  things  to  be  said 
greatly  to  our  credit,  and  we  have  numerous  reasons  for 
encouragement  and  thanksgiving.  We  have  brain,  thought, 
argument.  We  have  money,  schools,  intelligence.  We  have 
large  and  kindly  hearts,  and  a  most  reputable  benevolence 
and  uprightness.  We  have  thus  many  of  the  conditions  for 
becoming  a  mighty  and  effective  Church  already  in  the  pro- 
cess of  fulfilment.  But  —  and  in  saying  this  I  shall  only 
be  repeating  what  has  been  implied  or  said  on  every  page 
preceding  —  spiritually  we  are  not  alive  as  we  should  be. 
Souls  are  not  kindled.  Hearts  are  not  aglow.  We  scarcely 
begin  as  yet  to  be  penetrated  by  any  proper  consciousness 
of  what  Universalism  means.     We  do  not  at  all  commen- 


THREE  WORDS.  343 

suratoly  foel  what,  in  it,  God  has  given  to  our  chargn,  nor 
what  there  is  for  us,  under  God  aud  tlie  leadership  of  Christ, 
to  do  for  our  own  salvation,  or  for  the  salvation  of  others. 

I  speak,  of  course,  of  the  rule.  Those  there  have  been 
and  are,  profoundly  alive  to  all  these  things,  —  hearts  fer- 
vid, glowing,  consecrated,  showing  every  day  what  Univer- 
salisni  duly  appreciated  and  experienced  would  make  of  us 
all.  But  how  few  such,  comparatively  !  —  though  not  few 
in  tlie  aggregate.  Mainly,  Universalisra  is  accepted  and 
held  with  sole  reference  to  its  letter.  It  is  a  theory.  It  is 
a  doctrine.  It  is  an  arraignment  and  challenge  of  other 
creeds  ;  a  denial  ;  an  attack  ;  a  controversy  ;  an  argument ; 
a  shell  of  statements.  Or,  it  is  simpl}''  a  certificate  of  final 
safety  for  everybody  ;  a  proclamation  of  God's  impartial 
love  and  of  Clu-ist's  certain  triumph  in  getting  the  whole 
world  into  heaven.  What  is  implied  back  of  and  under- 
neath all  this  is  little  considered.  We  fail,  therefore,  of  the 
quickening  and  inspiration  we  should  get  from  it.  We  are 
not  warmed,  fused,  made  spiritually  fluent  and  forceful  by 
it.  The  baptism  of  fire  does  not  come,  as  it  ought  to  come, 
upon  us  through  it.  Hence  coldness,  lack  of  life,  waste 
of  opportunity,  loss  of  power.  We  need  vivification.  We 
need  that  the  rays  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  shall  strike 
down  to  the  roots  of  our  being,  penetrating  us  with  kindling 
and  life-giving  energy.  Beneath  the  letter,  we  need  to  per- 
ceive and  catch  the  spirit,  that  we  may  be  set  on  fire  by 
it ;  and  we  shall  never  personally  know  what  Universalism 
is,  nor  can  our  Church  ever  become  spiritually  electric  and 
mighty,  until  we  are. 

Assuming  nothing,  then,  —  speaking  only  as  from  the 
ranks,  as  a  fellow-believer  and  a  humble  laborer  with  you 
for  what  is  so  worthy  of  our  love,  may  I  address  myself, 
frankly,  earnestly,  to  you,  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  Uni- 
VERSALisT  Church  of  America,  wherever  or  whoever  you  may 
be,  and  as  my  final  word  touching  this  New  Departure 
which  I  have  been  trying  to  further,  plead  with  you,  by  all 
that  is  precious  in  our  faith,  and  by  all  that  is  at  stake  upon 
your  spiritual  life,  to  consider  what  this  word.  Ignition, 
means,  and  to  seek  henceforth  to  have  its  meaning  fulfilled 
among  us  ?     You  will  agree  with  me  that  we  want  Candor 


344  OUR  NEW   DEPARTURE. 

from  our  neighbors  and  friends  who  reject  and  oppose  Uni- 
versalism,  and  that  we  have  a  right  to  demand  it.  You 
will  equally  agree  with  me  that  we  want  Loyalty  from  those 
who,  believing  Universalism,  are  now  faithless  to  it,  and 
that  we  no  less  have  the  right  to  demand  it.  But  are  you 
under  less  obligation  to  UniversaliKm  than  these  others  ? 
You  avow  Universalism.  You  represent  it.  Its  banner  is 
in  your  hands,  its  interests  in  your  special  keeping.  It  is 
strong  or  weak,  it  is  spiritually  eflective  or  fruitless,  it  will 
command  the  world's  attention  and  respect,  becoming  a  con- 
fessed power  or  otherwise,  according  to  what  you  are  and 
do,  and  the  illustration  you  thus  furnish,  or  fail  to  furnish, 
of  what  it  is  able  to  be  and  to  accomplish  as  an  element  of 
Christian  experience  and  life.  If,  then,  it  has  a  right  to  the 
Christian  recognition  and  the  fidelity  on  which  we  all  insist 
as  its  due  from  these  others,  what  has  it  not  a  right  to  de- 
mand of  us,  of  you?  Am  I  not  justified  in  saying  that  more 
even  than  it  needs,  or  has  a  right  to  demand,  Candor  from 
the  one  class,  or  Loyalty  from  the  other,  it  needs  and  has  a 
right  to  demand  Ignition  among  you  ?  needs  and  has  a  right 
to  demand  this  mor-e  than  either  of  these  other  things,  be- 
cause, important  and  desirable  as  they  are,  our  Church  is  in 
no  sense  dependent  on  them,  can  live,  and  grow,  and  do  its 
work,  if  it  must,  without  them,  while  this  is  vital  and  indis- 
pensable. 

Each  of  the  preceding  chapters  has  been  a  mention  of 
some  condition  on  which,  as  I  believe,  our  future  growth 
and  effectiveness  depend.  But  really,  as  has  been  inti- 
mated, these  and  all  conditions  are  summed  up  in  this  one  — 
that  Christ's  baptism  of  fire  shall  come  upon  us  through  the 
kindling  and  igniting  power  of  the  truth  we  hold.  We  need 
this  ignition  through  and  through.  But  let  me  mass  as 
much  as  possible  concerning  it  under  two  specifications. 

1.  We  require  it  in  respect  to  ou7^  responsibility.  What 
is  our  responsibility  ?  It  is,  as  the  stewards  of  God's  truth, 
to  give  this  truth  faithful  expression  and  service,  for  the 
world's  redemption.  Till  tJiis  is  felt,  no  conception  of  our 
real  position  and  work  is  possible. 

As  Universalists,  we  claim  no  exclusive  possession  of  the 
truth.     But  conceding  all  we  can  as  to  truth  among  others, 


TPIREE   WORDS.  345 

wo  have  in  Univcrsalism,  if  it  be  not  altogether  false,  the 
best  interpretation  of  Christianity  as  Christ  taught  it  which 
has  thus  far  been  reached.  Not  that,  as  any  of  us  yet  hold 
it,  it  is  final.  The  clearest  minds  among  us  doubtless  have 
their  misconceptions,  or  somehow  fail  to  see  the  whole  trutli 
without  refraction,  in  its  exact  relations  at  every  point. 
But  in  the  doctrine  of  God's  Fatherhood  and  of  man's  broth- 
erhood, in  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  eflSciency  and  of  the  ulti- 
mate unity  of  human  destiny,  with  what  is  contained  in 
these  as  to  duty  and  the  moans  and  conditions  of  salvation, 
we  have  what  is  final,  if  anything  is  final.  And  these  doc- 
trines being  final,  we  have  in  them,  for  substance,  the  very 
Gospel  of  Christ,  for  which  alike  the  intellect  and  heart  of 
man  are  clamoring,  — in  which  alone  is  furnished  tliat  which 
can  most  successfully  stem  the  present  incoming  tides  of 
materialism  and  unbelief,  and  bring  to  the  solid  shores  of 
faith  the  drifting  thousands  whose  rescue  in  this  world  is  at 
all  possible,  and  by  which  can  be  done  for  man  and  the 
world  what  nothing  else  can  do. 

Think,  then,  what  momentous  interests  are  hanging  upon 
a  due  realization  of  these  things  by  us,  and  upon  our  fitting 
appropriation  and  illustration  of  a  Gospel  so  precious  !  Who 
can  exaggerate  its  importance,  or  what  is  depending  on  our 
fidelity  as  its  representatives  ?  It  is  not  a  mere  doctrine 
about  salvation,  we  are  to  remember,  that  is  in  our  keeping. 
It  is  a  redemptive  power.  It  is  salvation  itself,  because  a 
Divin'e  agency  for  the  conversion  of  individuals  and  tlie  re- 
generation of  the  race  ;  and  we  have  it  as  God's  gift,  that, 
putting  it  first  of  all  into  our  own  lives  for  their  sanctifica- 
tion,  we  may  each  help  to  put  it  into  the  thought  and  life 
of  the  world,  to  fulfil  its  redemptive  purpose. 

What,  then,  follows  ?  That  if  the  world  is  at  any  time, 
or  an3'where,  actually  to  be  saved,  we,  under  Christ,  serving 
his  truth,  have  each  something  to  do  towards  saving  it. 
This  is  the  method  of  redemption.  Christ's  subjects  become 
his  instruments.  For  this  reason,  every  Christian,  accord- 
ing to  the  truth  he  holds,  has  a  share  in  the  saving  work. 
Hence  our  Lord's  words  to  his  disciples,  "  Ye  are  the  salt 
of  the  earth  ;  ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."  Not,  abso- 
lutely, that  there  is  no  truth,  or  religious  life,  outside  the 


346  OUR   NEW   DEPARTURE. 

pale  of  Christian  influence,  but  that  the  world's  hope,  re- 
ligiously, is  in  Christianity  and  its  believers.  Of  those, 
however,  to  whom  much  is  given,  much  is  required  ;  and 
this  saving  work  is  ours  btjyond  all  others,  because  our 
trust  of  truth  is  so  much  larger  and  better.  A  most  unfit 
and  beggarly  conclusion,  indeed,  it  would  be,  for  us  to  vaunt 
the  superior  grandeur  and  excellence  of  Universalism  as  we 
do,  and  then  to  live  as  if  it  were  only  so  many  empty  words, 
and  the  world  were  never  to  be  saved,  and  we  had  nothing 
to  do  towards  saving  it  I  The  grander  the  truth,  the  more 
saintly  the  life,  and  the  more  Christian  the  work,  demanded 
as  its  expression  in  the  world's  behalf. 

The  difficulty  —  or  one  of  the  difficulties  —  in  respect  to 
this  subject  is,  that  not  only  is  there  a  failure  to  feel  how 
much  God  has  given  us  in  the  Gospel,  but  that  there  is  no 
sufficient  sense  of  the  actual  peril  of  souls  and  the  world  on 
account  of  error,  indifference,  unbelief,  and  sin,  and  there- 
fore no  fitting  sense  of  the  reality  of  their  need,  or  of  the 
demand  on  us  in  their  behalf.  If  a  building  is  on  fire,  and 
human  beings  are  seen  in  it  exposed  to  destruction,  —  if  a 
child  is  in  the  water,  drowning,  or  some  poor  creature  is 
found  perishing  of  starvation,  instantly,  the  appeal  being  to 
our  senses,  we  appreciate  it,  and  are  stirred  to  a  sense  of 
duty  to  do  what  we  can  to  render  succor.  In  the  case  of 
those  needing  the  ministry  of  Christ,  and  our  ministry  as 
his  instruments,  there  is  no  such  vividness  of  impression. 
But  precisely  this  is  what  is  wanted.  And  why  may  we 
not  have  it  ?  True,  the  appeal  is  to  our  moral  conscious- 
ness, and  not  to  our  senses.  But  who  doubts  that  there  is 
an  unseen  life  more  real  than  the  seen  ?  Or  who  does  not 
know  that  whatever  touches  this  touches  us  most  keenly, 
because  in  the  thing  most  vital  ?  What  is  any  physical  ex- 
posure or  suffering,  at  its  worst,  compared  with  mental  ag- 
ony or  a  breaking  heart  ?  Mind  is  always  more  than  mat- 
ter. Souls  are  always  more  than  bodies.  And  by  so  much 
as  this  is  true,  ignorance  of  God  and  alienation  from  Him, 
spiritual  darkness  and  destitution,  the  agony  of  hearts  crushed 
and  comfortless,  or  yearning  for  light  and  finding  none,  the 
decay  of  manhood,  the  waste  of  moral  stamina  and  force, 
the  insensibility  and  death  of  the  soul,  are  really  far  more 


THREE   WORDS.  347 

terrible,  and  ought  to  stir  us  to  an  intenser  anxiety  to  render 
relief  and  cure  than  any  bodily  peril  can. 

Why  cannot  this  be  understood  ?  iVbove  all,  theoretically 
insisting'  on  the  fact  in  our  moral  philosophy  so  constantly 
and  emphatically  as  we  do,  why  is  it  not  raoi'e  generally 
understood  and  felt  among  us  ?  Why,  but  that  our  convic- 
tions are  formal  instead  of  vital, — cold  and  torpid  instead 
of  glowing  and  propelling  ?  Set  these  convictions,  that  we 
so  readily  talk,  rightly  to  burning  within  us,  and  with  them 
the  sense  of  responsibility  which  they  are  fitted  to  kindle, 
and  there  could  be  no  such  heedlessness  or  inactivity  as_ 
now.  Feeling  our  obligation,  we  should  bestir  ourselves  as 
sedulously,  in  our  anxiety  to  live  and  work  for  human  re- 
demption in  Christ,  as  we  now  do  to  extend  succor  to  those 
in  physical  peril  ;  and,  with  our  hearts  burning  as  they 
would  burn,  we  could  no  more  justify  ourselves  before  God, 
or  to  our  own  consciences,  for  unconcern  or  indolence,  or 
for  doing  anything,  directly  or  indirectly,  save  in  the  line 
of  purity  and  Christian  living  and  endeavor,  than  we  could 
now  justify  ourselves  should  we  push  back  the  drowning  into 
the  water  instead  of  helping  them  out,  or  should  we  fan  the 
flames  in  which  screaming  victims  were  enveloped  instead 
of  doing  our  utmost  to  extinguish  them. 

A  becoming  intensity  of  feeling,  then,  in  regard  to  Christ 
and  the  reality  of  his  work,  and  of  our  obligation  to  be  his 
helpers  —  this,  in  a  word,  is  the  thing  demanded  among  us. 
Now,  we  don't  half  believe  what  we  profess.  Think  for  a 
moment  of  the  inconsistency  of  professing  to  believe  in  the 
salvation  of  the  world  through  God's  truth  and  grace  in  His 
Son,  and  then  living  a  life  that  in  some  way  tells  every  day 
against  the  fulfilment  of  what  is  so  argued  for  as  truth  !  — 
of  proclaiming  that  the  time  is  coming  when  all  are  lovingly 
and  reverently  to  delight  in  God's  service,  and  then  living 
irreverently  and  profanely  !  —  of  talking  of  the  triumph  of 
righteousness,  and  then  helping  to  create  a  weak  and  lan- 
guid public  sentiment  concerning  intemperance  and  the  hab- 
its and  business  from  which  it  comes,  or  concerning  any 
evil  from  which  Christ  would  save,  or  in  any  way  contribut- 
ing an  example  that  helps  to  strengthen  sin  and  Satan,  or 
to  hinder  the  victory  of  holiness  !     Conscience  needs  stir- 


348  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

ring,  conviction  needs  igniting,  in  respect  to  all  these  things' ; 
and  could  we  but  have  the  sense  of  responsibility  that  would 
thus  be  kindled  in  a  becoming  consciousness  of  what  souls 
and  the  woi'ld  are  suffering  without  Christ  and  his  regener- 
ating power,  and  of  the  reality  of  that  work  of  redemption 
in  which,  as  believers  of  truths  so  grand  and  precious,  we 
are  called  to  participate,  we  should  see  an  awakening  among 
us  that  woulcl  speedily  set  us  all  to  thinking,  and  praying, 
and  living,  and  working  for  the  fulfilment  of  our  faith,  that 
would  very  soon  make  us  a  power  for  the  salvation  of  souls 
beyond  anything  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

Ah,  if  we  could  but  have  something  of  the  intensity  of 
Christ's  conviction  and  feeling !  Why  did  he  leave  the 
glory  he  had  with  his  Father,  and  come  down  to  earth  to 
give  himself  to  this  work  of  human  redemption  ?  Or  why 
was  all  heaven  moved  with  concern  at  his  coming  ?  Or  why 
is  there  such  joy  in  heaven  over  every  repentant  sinner  ? 
Why  but  because,  in  the  light  in  which  they  regard  it,  the 
need  of  redemption  is  seen  to  be  so  real,  and  the  importance 
of  the  work  so  great  ?  And  should  what  is  so  real  and  im- 
portant to  them  seem  of  small  consequence  to  us  ?  What 
work  of  human  suggestion  can  begin  to  compare  with  this 
in  the  momentousness  of  its  interest,  or  its  claims  ?  And 
yet,  should  some  earthly  dignitary  send  to  us,  saying,  I  am 
engaged  in  an  important  enterprise  for  the  instruction  and 
elevation  of  my  people,  and  I  desire  your  aid  to  give  it  suc- 
cess, who  of  us  would  not  be  proud  of  the  invitation,  and  be 
ambitious,  in  a  becoming  sense  of  the  importance  of  the 
work  and  of  our  responsibility,  to  do  all  we  possibly  could 
to  insure  the  success  desired  ?  Shall  we  the  less  appreciate 
such  an  invitation  because  it  comes  from  God  and  His  Son, 
or  be  less  desirous,  rightly  estimating  the  greatness  of  the 
work  and  our  responsibility,  to  make  of  ourselves  all  tliat  we 
can  as  co-workers  with  them  ?  There  is  not  one  of  us,  not 
even  the  feeblest  and  poorest,  to  whom  God  is  not  saying,  I 
want  your  help  in  my  effort  to  save  men,  or  to  whom  Christ 
is  not  sending  his  pleading  message.  Will  you  not  work 
with  me  for  the  great  end  for  which  I  died  ?  Shall  we  an- 
swer. No  ?  Who  can  tell  what  shall  be  the  effect  of  our 
earnestness  and  fidelity,  in  light,  x-edemption,  and  peace  to 


THREE   WORDS.  349 

souls,  on  the  one  hand,  or  what  consequences  of  sadness 
and  wretchedness  shall  follow  our  insensibility  and  sloth,  on 
the  other  ? 

Let  no  one  say  that  this  is  pressing  things  to  extremes. 
It  is  not  pressing  things  to  extremes.  It  is  the  literal,  prac- 
tical fact,  unless  the  Gospel  be  a  dream,  and  Christ  a  vision- 
ary, and  the  prophesied  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  the 
wildest  hallucination.  Where  does  God  work  towards  any 
highest  purpose  for  man  except  through  man  ?  Where  are 
harvests  gathered  save  as  man  plants  and  tills  ?  Or,  how 
have  ignorance  and  sin  been  conquered,  or  liberty  achieved, 
or  any  progress  in  knowledge,  or  civilization  won,  save  as 
man  has  struggled,  saci'ificed,  toiled  ?  Either  God  is,  or  He 
is  not,  proposing  the  spiritual  enfranchisement  and  perfec- 
tion of  our  race.  If  He  is  not,  Christianity  is  false,  and  we 
are  believing  a  lie.  If  He  is,  the  design  is  to  be  fulfilled 
thi'ough  means  ;  and  if  through  any  means,  then  in  part 
through  us,  because  we  have  in  charge  the  truth  which  can 
best  help  on  the  sanctifying  process.  Any  idea  or  assump- 
tion to  the  contrary  is  a  misconception  that  needs,  first  of 
all,  to  be  burned  out  of  us,  as  a  consciousness  of  the  real 
fact  is  set  to  burning  in  us.  If  the  grand  prophecy  of  our 
faith  is  ever  to  be  accomplished,  and  truth  and  righteous- 
ness are  actually  to  triumph,  the  consummation  is  to  be 
reached,  under  God,  only  as  we  and  those  like  us  do  the 
work  and  fight  the  battle  ;  and  the  question  we  have  reason, 
every  day,  most  anxiously  to  ask,  is.  How  are  we  doing  what 
God  has  assigned  us  ?  Is  Christ  the  moral  battery  of  the  uni- 
verse ?  We  are  his  conductors.  Are  we  electric  ?  Is  he 
the  Captain  of  our  salvation  ?  We  are  his  soldiers.  Are 
we  rightly  waging  the  contest  ?  If  we  are  not,  it  is  for  us 
to  feel,  and  so  far  as  we  are  not,  we  waste  his  power  ;  sub- 
tract from  the  sum  of  the  moral  forces  on  which  the 
world's  redemption  depends  ;  help  to  shadow  and  drag 
down  souls  and  the  race  instead  of  aiding  to  illumine  and 
lift  them  up  ;  and  to  this  extent  postpone  the  hour  when 
Christ  shall  conquer,  and  God  '  be  all  in  all.' 

Who  of  us,  then,  does  not  need  to  be  set  on  fire  by  a 
deeper  and  intenser  comprehension  of  such  a  responsibility, 
that  wc  may  be  moved  to  greater  warmth  of  feeling  and  pur- 


350  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

pose,  and  so  be  impelled  to  more  of  earnestness  and  conse- 
cration as  the  disciples  of  Christ  and  laborers  with  him  for 
the  subjugation  of  evil  and  the  victory  of  God  and  good  ? 

2.  But  not  alone  in  a  juster  sense  of  our  responsibility,  do 
we  need  Ignition.  Most  of  all  we  need  it  in  a  juster  and 
more  vital  appreciation  and  experience  of  the  spirit  and 
power  of  our  faith.  Hero  is  the  weak  point  of  all  Christen- 
dom —  a  failure  to  perceive  the  inmost  meanings  of  Christ, 
and  to  have  him,  a  living  power,  instead  of  a  technical 
assent,  in  the  soul.  It  is  our  weak  point  with  the  rest. 
Can  we,  just  here,  have  an  awakening  ?  If  not  —  this  whole 
book  has  been  an  attempt  to  intimate  what  must  be  accepted 
as  the  certain  conclusion. 

God's  prices  are  fixed.  Spiritual  results  can  come  only 
from  spiritual  causes  ;  and  if  we  are  to  make  ourselves  fur- 
ther felt  to  any  wide  and  positive  Christian  purpose,  we 
must  become  a  people,  as  the  Apostle  expresses  it,  "  alive 
unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  The  old  churches 
are  intrenched  in  the  popular  sympathy  and  attachment, 
notwithstanding  they  no  longer  represent  as  formerly  the 
current  of  popular  thinking  and  faith.  They  have  the  pub- 
lic ear.  They  draw  the  multitudes.  Tradition  and  prestige 
are  theirs.  And  it  is  sometimes  asked  —  often  with  no  little 
concern,  as  we  see  how  much  occasion  there  is  in  many 
communities  to  consider  the  question, — How  are  we  to 
change  all  this,  or  to  compete  with  these  intrenched  churches 
in  securing  attention  and  attracting  the  people  ?  If  we 
speak  of  sensational  or  illegitimate  methods,  there  arc  many 
ways  to  do  this.     But,  legitimately,  I  know  of  but  one  way. 

Speaking  only  in  a  general,  and  not  in  an  absolute  sense, 
we  have  done  all  we  can  with  Universalism  as  a  mere  doc- 
trine or  theory.  Not  that  there  is  not  a  great  work  for 
Universalism  yet  to  do  in  the  rectification  of  opinion.  There 
is.  Not  that  it  is  to  spread  no  farther  as  an  idea,  or  as 
an  interpretation  of  the  universe.  It  is  to  become  the 
prevalent  thought  of  Christendom,  What  I  mean  to  say 
is  that  we  can  no  longer  maintain  ourselves  as  a  distinct 
Church  on  a  mere  argumentative  or  controversial  basis,  or 
live  and  grow  on  mere  dogmatic  discussions.  Ephraim  did 
not  thrive  on  the  east  wind.     Topics  that  were  once  suffi- 


THREE   WORDS.  351 

cient  to  crowd  our  churches,  now,  save  under  exceptional 
circumstances,  no  longer  '  draw.'  They  have  grown  famil- 
iar ;  are  regarded  as  '  stale,'  and,  to  a  large  extent,  there- 
fore, have  lost  their  charm.  The  world's  attention  is  seldom 
long  held  by  any  purely  dogmatic  issue.  There  comes  a 
time  in  every  theological  or  religious  reform  when  the 
awakening  and  enlisting  force  of  mere  doctrine  expends 
itself,  and  when,  if  it  is  to  be  permanently  established  as  an 
organized  power,  in  a  living  and  growing  church,  it  must 
become  something  more  than  a  protest,  an  exposition,  or  an 
argument ;  —  must  become  a  minister  to  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  world,  or  having  answered  its  end,  it  dies.  This  time 
has  come  with  us.  So  far  as  we  are  really  doing  anything 
to-day,  getting  hold  of  the  people  and  building  a  Church, 
we  are  doing  it  by  virtue  of  what  religious  life  there  is 
among  us,  and  because  of  the  spiritual  power  we  are  put- 
ting into  our  communities. 

And  this  is  the  one  only  way  of  which  I  just  now  spoke, 
for  answering  the  question  referred  to.  How  did  Paul  and 
Peter  and  their  associates  enlist  attention  to  their  crucified 
Christ,  and  withdraw  the  people  from  the  divinely  appointed, 
but  superseded,  religion  of  Moses,  and  from  the  magnificent 
temples  of  idolatry  and  the  established  power  of  heathen 
rituals  ?  How  did  Peter  the  Hermit  inflame  all  Europe  into 
such  a  fever  for  the  crusades,  drawing  such  multitudes  away 
from  home  and  friends  and  everything  that  was  dear  ?  How 
did  Luther  conquer  the  almost  invincible  hold  of  Rome  upou 
the  popular  mind  and  heart,  and  so  shake  the  seven-hilled 
hierarchy  from  the  despotic  domination  in  which  it  had 
thought  itself  secure  ?  How  did  the  Wesleys  succeed, 
how  have  any  of  the  world's  agitators  and  reformers  succeed- 
ed in  securing  the  public  ear,  and  conquering  the  possession 
of  the  public  sympathy  and  faith  ?  How  but  by  a  burning 
enthusiasm  ?  How  but  by  being  themselves  on  fii-e  with 
that  with  which  they  sought  to  kindle  others  ?  How  would 
Christianity  have  won  the  place  it  did,  had  the  Apostles 
been  content  with  merely  disputing  in  synagogues,  or  argu- 
ing with  the  Gentiles  ?  They  had  their  doctrines,  and  argu- 
ments, and  knew  how  to  use  them.  But  they  were  no 
dealers  in  mere  doctrine,  or  argument.     They  had  them  only 


352  OUK  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

as  the  sun  has  light  and  heat  —  to  glow  with  them,  or  as  a 
furnace  has  coals  —  to  burn  with  them.  To  them,  every 
doctrine  was  a  sublime  fact,  and  every  opinion  a  vehicle 
through  which  the  fire  of  God's  truth  was  communicated  to 
them,  that  they  might  communicate  it  to  others  for  their 
kindling  and  salvation.  There  was  not  a  faculty  of  their 
nature,  not  a  precinct  of  their  souls,  that  was  not  aflame 
with  the  truth  they  bore.  How  else  could  they  have  faced 
and  endured  what  they  did,  or  have  so  wrought  even  nnto 
death  ?  Or  who  wonders  that  men  so  possessed  with  a 
sense  of  the  reality  and  importance  of  their  message,  so 
pervaded  with  its  indwelling  spirit,  so  burning  with  the 
impulse  to  proclaim  it,  were  a  success  as  to  the  effect  of 
their  ministry,  though  they  sealed  their  testimony  with  their 
blood  ? 

So,  if  we  are  to  be  most  profited  by  what  Ave  believe,  or 
if  the  Universalist  Church  is  to  live  and  become  a  power, 
we  must  be  possessed  by  Universalism  ;  feeling  what  it  is  ; 
made  fervent,  fluid,  burning  by  it ;  with  hearts  glowing ; 
with  eyes  streaming  with  the  light  of  the  Divine  flame 
within.  Our  work,  if  we  have  any  permanent  work,  is  not 
simply  to  displace  old  faiths,  and  dispossess  other  churches, 
but  to  attract  those  who  are  now  churchless,  —  multitudes 
of  them  without  faith,  and  to  transfuse  the  world  with  a  new 
life  ;  and  if  we  are  to  do  this,  we  must  ourselves  be  transfused, 
showing  in  our  own  fervors,  in  the  ardor  of  our  devotion,  in 
the  warmth  of  our  zeal,  in  the  glow  of  our  enthusiasm,  what 
we  have  wherewith  to  warm,  vitalize  and  save  others  :  — not 
one  minister,  nor  one  church  must  do  this,  but  all,  —  by  a 
common  awakening,  a  common  purpose,  a  common  opening 
of  hearts  to  the  baptism  of  fire.  There  is  no  other  way  for 
us  to  conquer,  or  prevail. 

I  will  not  here  speak  of  what  Universalism  has  thus  to 
move  and  kindle  us.  Enough,  perhaps,  has  been  said  on 
these  points  in  previous  chapters.  But  I  cannot  forbear  the 
remark  that  nowhere  since  the  Apostles  has  there  been  such 
a  spectacle  of  souls  awakened  and  glowing,  or  of  wise,  con- 
secrated, unconquerable  living  in  nearness  to  Christ,  and  in 
blessed  experience  of  what  he  only  can  impart,  as  we  should 
show,  if,  through  insight  and  consciousness,  we  could  but 


THREE  WORDS.  353 

be  thoroughly  ignited  to  understand  and  to  feel  all  that  this 
faith  bestows  and  discloses  :  for  to  whom  else  have  been 
given  such  revelations,  such  incentives,  such  appeals,  such 
encouragements  ?  Nothing  in  connection  with  this  whole 
subject  so  surprises,  nay,  so  amazes  me,  as  the  fact  that  thei'e 
are  so  many  professing  to  be  Universalists,  —  intelligent 
people,  thoughtful  people,  good  people,  most  of  them,  — 
ready  stoutly  to  insist,  theoretically,  on  the  religious  power 
of  Universalism,  and  ready,  not  a  few  of  them,  in  their  way 
to  work  for  it,  who  are  so  insensible  to  the  grandeur  of  these 
revelations,  so  dead  to  these  appeals,  incentives  and  en- 
couragements, and  apparently  so  lost  to  any  thought  that 
they  should  be  at  all  moved  or  kindled  by  them.  They  talk 
Universalism,  and  talk  .it  well,  many  of  them  ;  but  they  fail 
to  get  anything  but  mere  dogma  out  of  it,  as  one  gets  only 
a  bunch  of  bones  in  a  skeleton's  hand. 

How  much  is  said  among  us  about  the  salvation  of  the 
world!  But  how  many  hearts  are  touched  by  a  sense  of 
what  it  includes,  or  by  the  prospect  it  opens  ?  Let  some 
good  man  who  has  been  willing  to  expose  himself  to  danger 
for  the  sake  of  others,  return,  bringing  them  in  safety  with 
him,  and  into  what  enthusiasm  we  are  all  kinjdled,  and  how 
their  hearts  throb  with  gratitude  towards  their  deliverer ! 
Let  some  soldier  ride  thi'ough  our  streets,  bearing  the 
trophies  of  a  battle  in  Avhich  he  has  conspicuously  helped  to 
win  victory  for  the  right,  and  how  our  pulses  beat  as  we 
shout  his  welcome  !  But  here  is  Christ,  with  our  whole  race 
redeemed  and  brought  home  through  what  he  has  done  and 
suffered,  —  here  is  God,  victorious  over  all  the  forces  of 
evil,  —  here  are  good  triumphant,  and  every  human  soul 
helped  into  purity  and  blessedness,  and  all  heaven  surging 
with  the  joy  of  death  destroyed,  sin  conquered,  all  mystery 
solved,  all  lost  ones  found,  all  parted  ones  united,  all  pain 
compensated,  and  all  God's  family  made  one  foi'ever  in  His 
presence  —  and  pulses  beat  not !  souls  glow  not !  hearts 
are  unkindled,  as  cold  as  if  all  this  were  a  thing  of  no  con- 
cern !  Think  of  it !  We  have  here  included  all  that  God  is 
as  our  Father,  all  that  Christ  is  as  our  Saviour,  all  that  the 
Cross  is  as  the  symbol  of  an  unconquerable  love,  all  that  sin 
is  as  our  curse,  all  that  heaven  is  as  the  perfect  answer  to 
23 


354  OUE  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

our  largest  hopes,  —  and  yet  men  and  women,  professing  to 
believe  it,  and  arguing  and  quoting  the  Bible  to  prove  it, 
could  scarcely  be  less  moved  by  it,  in  any  peneti'ating, 
fusing,  experimental  way,  if  it  were  simply  a  theorj'  how 
best  to  dispose  of  last  year's  chaif !  What  but  the  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  can  rightly  move  those  so  insensible  ? 
Or  how  can  we  ever  be  a  live  and  spiritually  effective  peo- 
ple save  as  there  somehow  comes  to  us  an  arousing  —  an 
opening  of  eyes,  to  see  what  Universalism  is,  —  a  quicken- 
ing of  spiritual  sensibility,  to  feel'  it,  —  an  electric  influx, 
causing  thought,  emotion,  purpose,  the  whole  soul,  to  be 
set  on  fire  by  it? 

Not  that  we  should  invite  or  desire  any  fever  or  excite- 
ment. The  sun  makes  no  'fuss,'  or  crackle,  in  shining. 
Neither  do  the  trees  in  growing.  Christ  made  no  show. 
He  did  not  "  strive  nor  cry,  neither  did  any  man  hear  his 
voice  in  the  streets."  He  simply  felt  and  glowed.  So 
with  the  Apostles.  So  it  has  been  with  all  who  have  had 
Christ  deepest  and  most  experimentally  in  them.  So  it 
should  be  with  us.  We  want  no  noise  ;  no  cheap  and  bois- 
terous '  gush  '  ;  no  fanaticism  ;  no  showy  or  overflowing 
religious  efiervescence  ;  no  '  strange  fire.'  We  want  only 
warmth ;  sensibilities  thoroughly  awakened ;  spiritual  per- 
ceptions clarified  ;  a  fervor  and  glow  of  the  entire  being,  as 
the  fires  of  God's  grace  and  of  Christ's  self-sacrificing  love 
pervade  it,  and  as  the  resulting  sense  of  all  Divine  realities, 
with  the  glory  that  is  possible  now  and  the  fulness  of  glory 
beyond,  becomes  a  sweet  experience  and  joy.  This  is 
Christian  ignition,  by  which  only  can  our  faith  possess  us, 
or  can  we  possess  the  world.     Shall  we  have  it  ? 

Shall  we  have  it  ?  This  is  the  one  question  of  this 
book  ;  and,  penning  it  here  for  the  last  time,  I  do  so  in 
confidence  and  hope,  and  yet  not  without  solicitude  and 
prayer.  For,  though  I  see  much  as  I  look  over  the  field  to 
assure  and  encourage  us,  yet,  as  I  yield  myself  to  the 
thoughts  which  the  question  suggests,  and  consider  how 
many  things"  must  concur  for  its  right  answer,  and  how 
much  depends,  for  ourselves,  for  our  country,  for  the  world, 
on  its  being  so  answered,  I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  how 


THREE   WORDS.  355 

serious  it  is,  nor  that  thei'o  arc   grounds  for  some  appre- 
hension. 

Dwelling  for  a  moment  on  the  question,  my  mind  is  busy 
with  our  past,  our  present,  our  future.  Looking  back  over 
these  years  of  our  first  century,  1  think  of  tlie  manifest 
Providence  which  attended  the  opening  of  our  history,  and 
of  all  that  has  since  been  done  to  plant  and  extend  this 
Church  of  our  love.  I  reflect  on  all  that  has  helped  to 
make  it  what  it  is,  and  that  not  only  are  wo  the  heirs  of  the 
ages,  sharing  in  the  results  of  all  the  great  Avork  of  the 
world's  great  souls,  —  apostles,  heroes,  martyrs,  and  gath- 
ering fruit  from  the  seed  which,  in  blood  and  tears,  they 
planted,  but  that  we  are  specially  the  heirs  of  the  devoted 
and  earnest  men  who  founded  and  have  builded  our  Church 
—  building  themselves,  some  of  them,  forever  into  it.  I 
think  of  Murray  and  Winchester  and  the  early  Streeters, 
and  Lathe,  and  Richards,  and  the  rest,  whom  I  never  saw. 
I  think  of  the  Ballous,  and  Turner,  and  Balfour,  and  Sebas- 
tian Streeter,  and  Whittemore,  and  their  co-laborers,  whom 
it  was  my  privilege  to  know,  and  whose  faces  hang  as  un- 
fading pictures  in  the  gallery  of  my  heart.  I  think  of  the 
zeal  and  sincerity  and  self-sacrifice  which  these  names,  and 
those  of  others  no  less  faithful,  symbolize,  and  thus  of  what 
has  been  done  to  make  us  what  we  are,  and  something  of 
the  toil  and  brain  and  heart  our  Church  as  it  exists  to-day 
has  cost. 

Then,  as  I  consider  what  is  the  truth  which  has  thus  been 
served,  and  how  we  have  ripened  in  apprehending  it,  and 
what  an  influence  has  gone  out  from  us,  and  what  we  have 
come  to  be,  and  what  are  the  possibilities  inviting  us  to 
their  fulfilment,  the  query  comes.  For  Avhat  has  all  this 
been  ?  To  what  end  have  these  men  lived  and  labored  ? 
To  what  end  has  this  Church  so  groAvn  in  all  the  resources 
of  church-power  ?  To  what  end  these  leavening  influences 
which  it  has  so  difi"used  '{  To  what  end  these  great  possi- 
bilities ?  Only  that  we,  and  those  who  are  to  succeed  us, 
should  sufier  them  to  be  in  vain,  or  so  far  in  vain  that  Uni- 
versalism  is  to  go  into  history,  not  as  an  organized  Church, 
standing  through  the  generations  to  do  permanent  work  for 
Christ  and  the  evangelization  of  the  world,  but  simply  as  an 


356  OUR  NEW  DEPARTURE. 

ephemeral  movement,  a  temporary  means  of  modifying 
thought,  apjDearing  for  a  little  while,  and  then  passing 
away  ?  And  then,  as  I  reflect  what  would  be  lost  should 
this  be  our  end,  and  how  hungering  hearts,  and  eyes  blinded 
with  tears,  and  an  unbelieving  and  sinful  world  need  us,  and 
what  momentous  consequences  are  suspended  on  our  con- 
tinued existence  and  increasing  power,  I  seem  to  hear  all 
our  ascended  saints  and  worthies,  with  one  voice,  appealing 
to  us,  and  protesting,  God  forbid  that,  through  the  insensi- 
bility and  faithlessness  of  those  to  whom  we  have  be- 
queathed so  great  a  trust,  our  toils  and  sacrifices  should 
come  only  to  such  an  end  !  Shall  this  be  their  end  ?  This 
is  the  question  which  God,  and  Christ,  and  all  who  have 
labored  in  our  past,  and  every  interest  concerned,  are  uniting 
.to  press  upon  us  as  we  stand  on  the  threshold  of  our  second 
century.     How  will  we  answer  ? 

A  potent  and  impressive  answer  was  that,  so  far  as  one 
man  could  answer,  given  by  the  solitary  Universalist  who, 
in  a  community  doctrinally  arrayed  against  him,  conquered 
prejudice  and  disarmed  opposition,  extorting  the  confession, 
"  We  think  we  might  manage  his  arguments,  but  we  don't 
know  what  to  do  with  his  life  "  !  It  was  a  life  so  generous, 
so  pure,  so  prayerful,  so  thoughtful  and  loving  towards 
man,  so  full  of  piety  towards  God,  in  all  things  so  per- 
vaded by  the  very  flavor  of  Christ's  spirit,  and  thus  so  in 
advance  of  the  lives  about  him,  that  it  was  a  constant  won- 
der to  those  who  observed  and  felt  it.  Who  can  tell  what 
came  of  it  for  the  honor  of  Christ  and  the  conversion  of 
souls  ? 

God  help  and  quicken  us  till  every  Universalist,  pene- 
trated in  like  manner  by  the  spirit  of  our  faith,  shall  attest 
its  power  in  a  similar  life.  Then  will  all  questions  touching 
our  Future  be  efiectually  answered,  and  our  destiny  be  as- 
sured. Then  will  Universalism  become  the  recognized  syn- 
onyme  of  all  that  is  grandest  in  thought,  noblest  in  aim, 
purest  in  life,  and  most  sanctifying  in  influence  ;  and,  giving 
demonstrative  evidence  that  the  life  of  God  is  flowing  through 
it,  the  Universalist  Church  will  go  forward  into  constantly 
fresh  Departures,  because  into  steadily  enlarging  plans  and 


THREE   WORDS.  357 

widening'  power  —  each  Now  Departure  taking  it  on  to 
hig'her  ground,  and  into  more  earnest  labor  in  Christ's  be- 
half, until  its  work  below  shall  be  finished  in  the  flowing 
together  of  all  churches  in  form,  as  they  should  now  be  one 
in  spirit,  and  as  the  Churcli  praying  and  struggling  on 
earth  becomes  the  Church  victorious  in  heaven. 


^^-'--e^^yj^' 


( 


